


you're my nomad and i love you sideways

by poetdameron



Category: Cobra Kai (Web Series), Karate Kid (Movies)
Genre: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Background Amanda/Ali, Commercial Pilot Johnny, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Fluff, Getting Together, Happy Ending, Humor, M/M, Past Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Pining, Podfic Welcome, Roommates, Sharing Clothes, Sharing a Bed, Unplanned Pregnancy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-31
Updated: 2021-03-11
Packaged: 2021-03-17 10:00:18
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 49,459
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29098425
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/poetdameron/pseuds/poetdameron
Summary: Daniel gets into an unusual deal with his roommate, Johnny, and they pretend to be mates for the following six months. Even when they can't stand each other.
Relationships: Daniel LaRusso/Johnny Lawrence
Comments: 141
Kudos: 206





	1. the salesman & the news

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Daniel gets some news.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Update February 5, 2021: Read ending notes, please.
> 
> A few months back, I made a 'Chose Your Own PoetDameron Fic' game on Twitter for my readers and followers to prompt the fic that would become my 200th in AO3. This the result of it! So, I want to dedicate this story to the Twitter side of the fandom who has been incredibly supportive and nice to me since forever. 
> 
> This is also the first of my trio of stories in which Johnny is a commercial pilot. Yes, there are three of those. They will come.
> 
> You guys prompted this:
> 
> \- Adult LawRusso  
> \- A/B/O Dyanmics AU with Omega Daniel and Alpha Johnny  
> \- Rooommates / Fake Dating/ Enemies | Rivals to Lovers  
> \- RomCom, fluff, bedsharing, pining  
> \- Background wlw (Amanda/Ali)  
> \- Rated E
> 
> I'll add more tags and characters as the story goes. Enjoy the first chapter!

“Last night…” Daniel blinked a couple of times, then sighed. “Last night was weird.”

Anoush looked at him with a small frown, moving his head slightly to one side as he waited for more information. Daniel tried not to think much of it, but… It had been bugging him all night and morning. He needed someone else’s opinion.

“You remember the asshole alpha I live with?”

“Oh, blond pretty alpha that is never home?”

“What? Pretty—I don’t remember calling him—You know what? Whatever.” He sighed again. “Alright, so we are both at Mr. Miyagi’s workshop.”

“Aha.” His friend said, taking his cup of coffee to his lips. "He didn't fly yesterday?" 

“Uh, no." Daniel blinked, trying to remember when he mentioned to Anoush that Johnny was a pilot. "So—he was looking at me with this intense frown on his face all. the. time.” Daniel punctuated to make a point. “Until I turn around and go, _“what’s up?”_ and he immediately turns… and walks all the way to the other side as if I smelled or something.”

“You have been smelling of nothing lately.” Anoush frowned deeper, Daniel ignored the comment and kept going.

“He keeps his grump to the manixum as always, but you know—I can’t really say anything because he’s been nice to Mr. Miyagi, like he’s been helping him around and he’s helped Carmen—“

“The pregnant lady?”

“Yeah, the pregnant lady. I think she’s giving birth soon…” Daniel blinked, Anoush blinked back and took a donut. “Maybe he likes her! Have you ever heard of an alpha liking an omega pregnant by another alpha?”

Anoush shook his head, Daniel’s stomach twisted. He took a donut, too.

“Doesn’t matter! The point is, this asshole is being weird and it’s pissing me off that he keeps avoiding me so when I ask him what’s wrong, he asks me—I can’t believe he said that!—He asked me how long I've been pregnant!” He swallowed. “Pregnant! Me!”

He saw Anoush’s frown go even deeper, almost as if he was considering what the alpha had said. Daniel ignored the way his tongue felt heavy, and shook his head. 

“And then, Mr. Miyagi is asking him to go. He said _“maybe better if you go, Johnny-san”_ and he just ran! Literally! He ran away like a man on fire!” He shook his head. “And he wasn’t home when I got upstairs! I have no idea where the hell he spent the night or even why—“

Daniel bit the inside of his cheek, trying to remain calm as his frown settled deeper on his face and his stomach kept bothering him. He bit the donut, the sugar shot making him want to throw up so instead, he dropped the thing into a napkin on the coffee table.

“Then Mr. Miyagi was telling me about scents and that I should take my suppressants because it’s dangerous since my roommate is an alpha—but I took them, alright.” He liked between his lips, then kept talking. “Apparently, they stopped working or something, because Mr. Miyagi says that my scent—”

“Changed!” Anoush said with wide open eyes. “Yes, that’s it!” The man said, signaling him with shining eyes as if he had won a game. Daniel frowned. “Dan, that’s it. Your scent changed, like when you get preg—”

His eyes opened wide.

“No!” They said at the same time. 

“Shit!” Again. 

“Amanda!” And again.

**You’re My Nomad And I Love You Sideways**

**Chapter I**

**The Salesman & The News**

The bathroom at the mini-mall was goddamn filthy.

Daniel blinked a couple of times as he sat on the closed toilet of the omega bathroom. In front, the door had a series of barbaric shit written on and a curiously good cartoon of a crying boy with animal ears that made him move his head to one side.

He arched an eyebrow and thought of the subway bathrooms in Manhattan, the way his mother would never let him go alone into them, not even the omega ones.

Daniel bounced his right leg, looking at his watch—not a minute had passed. 

Someone entered the bathroom with a crying baby, Daniel’s heart beat hard and his stomach flipped at the sound. 

The parent tried to hush the baby, softly talked to them as he heard them struggle with the changing table.

If he wasn’t about to have a crisis and curse his assignation once and for all like a good omega cliché, Daniel would have gotten out of the stall and helped the parent out.

Babies were cute.

Daniel bit his bottom lip, swallowing as he looked down to his hands, to the stick in his left hand.

He turned it.

Plus.

He blinked once, then twice and his leg stopped bouncing at the same time the baby was now giggling while the parent talked cutely at them.

Daniel put the plastic stick in the trash as if it burned his fingers and blinked once more, biting the inside of his cheek as many thoughts passed fast through his head.

Positive.

“Da-da!” The baby outside said, notoriously happy now that they were getting clean. “Da-da-da!”

Daniel was pregnant.

* * *

Johnny Lawrence had been right and it pissed Daniel off in ways he couldn’t understand.

Maybe he should be worrying about more important things—like what was he gonna do? He didn’t really have a plan for this scenario. He hardly hooked up, he took all the precautions in the world when he was with someone and—

That goddamn alpha had been fucking right.

He was pregnant.

Daniel stepped into the mini-mall after leaving the bathroom, unsure of what the next step was.

In front, the stupid old car his alpha roommate drove was parked near the travel agency he had swore to one day get in and actually buy a ticket to anywhere but here. He shook his head—he really should be thinking of what he was going to do, not of if Johnny was around or—

What was he supposed to do?

Call someone? Did he even have _that_ guy’s number? Daniel blinked—he’ll have to talk to the guy from the bar didn’t he? He couldn’t remember if it had even been a good night.

“Good Lord…”

He sighed, thinking of a doctor he could talk to just to make sure he was—was he gonna keep it? He had a good job, sure—there was an extra room in the apartment currently used as an office none of them actually touched, and—

Johnny. There was Johnny. Recently moved in Johnny, with his terrible eating habits, awful schedule, and unhelpful comments here and there.

No kid should ever be brought into a place with that man around.

“Goddammit.” Daniel swallowed, walking to a bench where he sat down in almost defeat.

If he called his mom, she would probably—he had no idea. 

He had no idea of what Lucille LaRusso’s reaction could be. 

Daniel was a damn grown adult, it was completely his responsibility to deal with this, and—

The agency’s door on the other side of the parking lot opened, and Daniel looked at it, blinking a couple of times. 

A woman came out with a baby bag, followed by Johnny carrying a baby boy. 

Daniel’s breathing hitched. He blinked a couple of times more, frozen where he stood.

So that was little Mr. Lawrence, Johnny's kid he had heard of but never seen in three months.

He saw as the alpha closed the door, then turned to the apparently angry woman. They seemed to be arguing in hushed voices, the baby unaware of what was happening.

For a second, Daniel could swear the kid was looking at him, clapping his hands with a huge smile. He swallowed, unable to look away.

Johnny sighed visibly, nodding after a few seconds.

He saw as he moved the baby in his arms, holding his little head firmly with one huge hand. 

The alpha was talking to his son, smiling before kissing his forehead. He let his lips linger for long seconds there, looking like he didn’t want to ever let go.

Daniel wondered what was there. This was something he hadn’t seen in his asshole roommate before. Hell, he knew he had a child but had never seen him before.

Looked from here… he seemed like a totally different person.

Slowly, Johnny gave the baby to the woman. 

She walked away, Johnny stood there watching as if he had been defeated, his hands made into fists he slightly put up then down; as if a part of him had been snatched. 

The baby looked at him, immediately crying as if he had just noticed they were separated.

Daniel’s womb _spasmed…_ hard.

Johnny ran to the woman again, taking the baby as they both tried to calm him down. 

The kid calmed a little, Johnny ended up walking with them to what Daniel assumed was the woman’s car. He saw them prep the kid in the backseat, share a few other words, and then watched as Johnny looked as the car went away.

Daniel blinked awake from whatever trance he’d been in watching all this, he shook his head and thought better of what he was doing—he needed to get home. 

Maybe if he went home, the day would make sense and he could finally think of what the hell to do next.

He gave one last look at Johnny, finding him passing his hands through his hair as he looked down, kicking imaginary rocks as he walked away slowly. 

The alpha looked as exhausted as Daniel felt. 

He wondered if he'd be home today.

Daniel couldn’t help but wonder what was all that about as he stood.

* * *

In the solitude of his apartment, Daniel laid on the couch with his legs on the wall and his head hanging closer to the ground, looking at the ceiling in the dark as many things passed through his head.

The alpha had texted him something about working with Mr. Miyagi then heading out for the night. 

Daniel was alone with his thoughts tonight.

Sighing, he tapped his fingers over his abdomen, thinking of the stick he left at the mini-mall’s bathroom.

He had many options, things to consider—Daniel was to turn thirty two later the year, if he wanted to carry his own kids in the future, he still had a couple of good years and no one important would care if he interrupted the pregnancy.

Daniel supposed maybe grandma should be left in the dark about it—hell, he didn’t have to tell anyone. 

The only ones that knew were Anoush and Amanda, and his friends wouldn’t judge him for such a thing, just fuss over him to make sure he was fine. And Johnny—the alpha couldn't care less.

This was such a mess in his head only.

At work, HR dealt with sick days pretty well. He didn’t have to tell anyone and there were a bunch of good clinics out there he could consult with and chose the better prize and doctor.

Daniel swallowed, blinking away the noise in his head, hating a little how actually calm he was about the whole ordeal.

Someone knocked at the door, but he didn’t move. They did it again, and when he didn’t answer, they left.

Daniel sighed.

There was another option.

Being a single parent was hard, lonely. 

He’d seen it with his mother ever since his father died, the way she put her life aside just to raise Daniel, working her ass off to give him everything: a good place to live, food, education—Daniel never really lacked anything that mattered, that was important.

She had moved them across the country to take better job opportunities, trained and studied, kept him safe and well fed. 

Daniel didn’t even have to subscribe to the government's program to help and support omega kids in necessity, his mother made enough money to buy him suppressants and what he needed for heats back then.

Why would he put himself through that with a baby that may never know their alpha parent? Why bother having to go to the bar and beg the dude may be around? 

He bit his bottom lip, the sun had gone down as he stayed there and now, there was only darkness and the lines of light coming from outside the apartment, the streetlights and the noise of the Valley.

Another knock to his door, Daniel sat on the couch and looked at it, hissing at how dizzy the movement made him—he’d been too long with his head hanging. He put a hand on his forehead and closed his eyes.

The person didn’t knock again, instead slid something under his door. Daniel blinked, slowly standing up and walking to what looked like paper.

He picked it up and straightened the folds, blinking at the all caps handwriting, a card slid down and Daniel catched it, looking at it curiously.

_Harmon Prenatal Care Clinic_

Daniel blinked a couple of times, looking at the written note with a frown.

_Sorry about yesterday._

_My instincts are at their worst lately_

_I know it’s none of my business but this clinic has it all from prenatal care to abortions._

_They are really nice and profesional_

_Ask for Doctor James Harmon Sr._

_Knock on #3 if you want to yell at me_

_— Johnny_

“Goddammit, Lawrence.” Daniel frowned deeper, closing his eyes. His womb was spasming again. “Go back to being a jerk!”

Daniel opened his eyes, reading the rest of the note.

_PS: I’m not moving out, though_

He rolled his eyes, “Unbelievable!”

Daniel really couldn’t stand the man. 

He was—a descent alpha, he knew that, but a jerk is a jerk. Sighing, Daniel looked back at the card, wondering if this was Johnny’s baby mother’s clinic, too.

Putting the card on his wallet, Daniel looked back at the note. 

Apartment 3 was Carmen’s.

Were they seeing each other? Carmen was a lot younger than them, younger than Amanda even. Not like it mattered, but—

He shook his head.

Johnny didn’t have to—they weren’t friends, they didn’t like each other at all, but he still had apologized and—wanted to help? He blinked, walking deeper into the apartment.

Maybe he still needed to think it over—maybe sleeping would do him good.

As he smiled, still looking at the note, Daniel realized just how tired he was. 

Tired enough to think Johnny sweet.

* * *

He was going to keep the baby.

* * *

Telling his mother was easier than he thought it would be. 

Lucille had listened to his every word, even laughed at his bad jokes as he prepared himself on the phone to tell her the news, and then let him explain himself, say the “first draft” of his plan, before she opened her mouth.

“I would’ve liked to hear this in person.” She said first, making Daniel blink. “But honey, I’m so happy for you! Of course it’s not ideal, I would’ve loved to see you marry—but there is time for that later when you find the right alpha—”

“Or beta, mom.”

She absolutely ignored him. “And this pup is for sure a blessing! Oh, Daniel! I’m gonna be a grandmother! Me!”

He couldn’t help but smile. 

They talked for long hours afterwards, his mother already making plans for when to arrive and take care of him and the baby, and the first part of what he could tell would become an ongoing battle: that he needed to get rid of his roommate.

“Ma—“ He swallowed. “Don’t be rude…”

“No, it’s nothing against him!” Lucille said. “But Daniel, you’ll need the room!”

“I was thinking of just using the office—I don’t need it, I’m the one that uses it, so—“

“Because it’s your place!”

Daniel took a deep breath, remembering the morning Mr. Miyagi told him he had found the perfect roommate for him.

 _“Won’t be home anyway!”_ The man had said. _“Quiet as mouse!”_

He’d been right—Johnny was barely around.

The man was a commercial pilot, he only spent three nights in the apartment a week and had a free day weekly. Mostly on Wednesdays or Fridays, but it could vary. Lately, he was free on Mondays.

To this day, almost three months later, Daniel was still wondering from where had Mr. Miyagi met Johnny. And why none of them wanted to tell him just so.

“Johnny has been really nice about all this, actually.” Daniel blinked at his own admission. “I don’t—I haven’t told him I’m going forward with it, but I’m not gonna ask him to move out, mom.”

She went silent then, Daniel wondered how deep her frown may be right as they spoke. Lucille cleared her throat, and finally talked again.

“Anyway, I’ll be there for the last trimester. Believe me, you’ll want my help.”

“Sure, mom…”

The idea was sickening in how much he was longing for it already, but he wasn't about to ruin his mother's plans and have her moving for nine months without telling Johnny 

After hanging the phone, Daniel felt firm in his decision, ready to tell whoever and start taking care of everything he needed to for the months to come.

It was not gonna be easy, not at all—but he could do it. 

He was going to do it.

* * *

The next to know was Mr. Miyagi.

Daniel had been nervous to talk to the man. 

Mr. Miyagi was more than a friend and mentor to him. He had taught him everything lacking in his life when they met, had become the father life had taken away from him.

They met right when it was needed, in another apartment complex when he was only sixteen and new to the Valley. If it hadn’t been for Mr. Miyagi, Daniel may have never become part of California and its beach.

He found himself pacing from the beta’s workshop’s door to the elevator for long minutes until the machine opened, letting out a laughing and very pregnant Carmen, and an also laughing Johnny who was carrying groceries.

The man looked at him right away, he wondered if his smell had come to him and his cheeks burned—an unmated pregnant omega was sure a strange smell for an alpha who had recently become a father.

Johnny seemed like a magnet for pregnant omegas.

But the alpha didn’t say anything. He stood with Carmen as she talked to him, and maintained his eyes between them without a word.

“You look like you’ve seen a ghost!” She said, walking closer to Daniel. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine, just…” He felt his cheeks warmth, Johnny was looking at him with that weird intensity again. “I need to talk to Mr. Miyagi.”

“Oh!” Carmen smiled at him. “Well, good luck with that.”

“Thanks…”

She waved at him with her other hand on her round belly, walking away after and leaving Johnny alone with Daniel for a few seconds. The blonde looked at him in silence, then cleared his throat.

“Did you get my message?”

Daniel looked up into ocean blue eyes and swallowed, nodding before looking down again.

“Are you okay, LaRusso?”

“Yes.” He answered, clearing his throat after hearing his voice so small. “Thanks…”

This was a conversation they needed to have, didn’t they? Johnny lived with him, he needed to know he’ll be living with a baby in a few months.

He felt the man nod, staying there for longer as if he wanted to say more when Carmen called him from her apartment. Johnny cleared his throat and sighed.

“You—“ Daniel looked up at the hesitation in his voice, Johnny swallowed visibly and looked away. “Your scent is strong. It may be… dangerous.” He looked at him at least. “Sorry.”

“No, it’s fine.” He answered, embarrassed as hell but unable to say so. “Thanks for telling me, I’ll… I’ll tell the doctor.”

“Yeah.” Johnny stepped closer to him, then went back to his previous position. “I—I have a few books that may help you if you… keep it? I can leave them at your room’s door.”

Daniel bit the inside of his cheek. This was his chance—

“Oh, thanks.” He said. “That would be nice.”

Johnny looked at him for long seconds, still carrying someone else’s groceries. There was a soft frown on his face as if he was debating if talking to him was a good idea or not.

“Okay.” He murmured. “Right.”

At the end, he didn’t say anything else, then nodded, licking his lips before finally walking away.

Why was Daniel’s heart beating so fast? He bit his bottom lip, not in the mood to dig deeper into that as he watched the man enter Carmen and Rosa’ apartment, laughing with the woman as they kept their previous conversation going.

They were a cute couple. 

He absolutely hated it.

Because—Carmen deserved better.

Daniel put all those thoughts and heartbeats aside as he came into Mr. Miyagi’s workshop and accepted his tea. 

They sat down one in front of the other, keeping their usual conversations and pretending Daniel didn’t smell different, that this wasn’t happening.

Clearing his throat, he found himself even more nervous than he was to tell his mother about it.

“Please, don’t freak out…”

The man blinked with a frown. “Why would Miyagi freak, Daniel-san?”

He chuckled humorlessly, unable to understand why this was so hard to say. It’s not as if he had done anything wrong—Daniel was a grown man, his mind was made. It—it’ll be okay.

“Mr. Miyagi, you’re like a father to me.” He started, hoping he wouldn’t disappoint his mentor. The beta smiled at him, nodding. “You’ve taught me… so many things. I’ll always be grateful for your guidance and friendship.”

“Miyagi grateful for Daniel-san, too.” He said, Daniel smiled at him. “But why so nervous, Daniel-san?”

His throat closed again, Daniel swallowed and willed himself to talk.

“I’m pregnant.” 

For a second, Mr. Miyagi didn’t even blink. He cleared his throat before speaking again.

“Is it good news?” _For you_ was left unsaid, Daniel only nodded. “Daniel-san,”

Mr. Miyagi walked closer to him, taking both his hands and looking him in the eyes.

“You will be best father.” He assured, Daniel’s heart ached. “Best father!”

He smiled with the man, heart hammering in his chest as they hugged and other questions were made. 

Daniel didn’t mind answering whatever as long as Mr. Miyagi was truly okay with this. He hadn’t even realized just how important it was for him to have him on his side.

But he had grown into the man he was today thanks to him. 

They had found each other when both most needed it, and Daniel had learned from him everything he needed to be ready for this moment and more. From karate to how to do his tie correctly, he owed this moment to Mr. Miyagi.

Daniel felt like a new man as they talked about his plans and when was his first appointment with the doctor.

The man insisted in going, in being informed of every step. 

He heard Mr. Miyagi make plans aloud. Of building a crib and talking to Lucille to keep her informed too, of painting rooms and origami mobiles for the crib.

It made his nose burn stronger, eyes watering as his throat closed and the overwhelming feeling of the past week started to land in, making Daniel’s back hurt, shoulders heavy as his chest filled with unsaid worries and feelings.

Mr. Miyagi caressed his back in circles, calmed him down and listened to his litany of ideas as it passed.

It passed, like the first weekend after finding out, it all passed.

* * *

He didn’t tell Johnny all weekend.

Daniel wouldn’t have found him even if he wanted to since the man flew all weekend and the hours at which he woke up were inhuman.

As the week started again, Daniel hoped he could be ready for that conversation, even when he didn’t want to have it.

But like every day, he woke up to an already empty apartment and city names written on the little board on the fridge.

Daniel sighed at the sight. 

No wonder his roommate was single. If he couldn't see his alpha for most of the week, he would go insane.

He'll tell the man later about the baby.

* * *

Rachel from Human Resources had been nice enough to send Daniel all he needed to know about the dealership’s health insurance and what the policies were for pregnancy—it wasn’t looking all so bad, but most of his prenatal meetings would’ve to come from his pocket.

“Are you—are you sure about all this?” Amanda asked for god-knows-what time this week.

He could tell she was worried. They’ve been friends for years, even went to a couple of dates last year. She was the nicest person Daniel knew, and she was worried about him.

“I’m fine.” He said with a smile. “Stop worrying about me!”

“If you keep codling him like that, he’s gonna start lactating ‘cause he doesn’t have an alpha!” Anoush intervened, making Daniel gasp in horror.

“You shut your mouth!” He said. “That’s not a thing!” 

Amanda rolled her eyes as Anoush laughed. “Come on, even if that was true, don’t you remember Daniel has an alpha?”

“Oh!”

“Don’t you dare…” Daniel warned.

“That is correct,” Anoush said, taking the folder he had originally come to pick up from Daniel’s office. “Dan, you gotta introduce us to your rustic blonde alpha.”

“I hate you both…”

“He even got you a clinic!” Amanda sweet-mocked, putting a hand on her chest. “Maybe you should take him with you to your first appointment.”

“Get out!” Daniel said, both his friends laughing like children as they moved away. 

Once he was alone, Daniel let his head fall on his hands, feeling tired already and it wasn’t even the middle of the day. 

Everyone and their mother had told him hormones were coming, odd cravings, nausea, hunger and tiresomeness would make themselves his every day, too.

If his math was correct, and since he hadn’t been with anybody since that night at the bar—this was his eleventh week.

After finding out, Daniel had tried to remember any morning sickness and found himself distracted with work and life to really notice.

It was only now that he knew, that he noticed all the signals that were there—and If Johnny had been able to smell him, there must be a heartbeat already. 

His belly wasn’t showing at all, today’s appointment was to give him all the answers he needed at the moment and Daniel couldn’t wait for it to be five already.

But for the rest of the day, he worked.

Daniel answered e-mails and checked everyone’s folders and sells, taking a few himself as he and Amanda competed to see who could get more sells in the week. And so far, the victory was his.

They had lunch together, talking some more about Daniel’s idea of working for as long as he could before entering his pregnancy and paternity leave, which immediately had his friend talking of baby-showers and things she so wanted to buy the kid she had already claimed as her godchild.

He couldn’t help the smile on his face for the rest of the day.

Which led him to discover that—

“Yes, it’s just… I just found out recently I’m pregnant! And today it’s my first appointment with the doctor, so I’m really excited about it!”

“Aww, that’s so wonderful!” The omega woman said, her wife smiled at her. “See? This is the fourth pregnancy we encounter today, it’s a signal!”

“I think it’s just a signal that we are getting that car.” The alpha woman answered, making Daniel smile wider as he side-looked at an annoyed Anoush. “Come on, man. You get a commission, right? Tell that baby about us when they come.”

“Of course!”

This pregnancy thing was a godsend.

* * *

“This pregnancy shit it’s insane!”

His first appointment had gone okay until it didn’t.

When he was introduced to the doctor, Harmon had been nice enough to let him know some smells may be too much for him and if he felt the need to throw up, he shouldn’t hesitate to use his bathroom. No problem at all.

As Mr. Miyagi and Amanda waited for him outside, Daniel sat at first listening to the man’s little introduction to pregnancy, answering all his questions as honestly as he could, then following him into the examination table after changing into a robe.

The man prepared Daniel, instructing him into the examination table as he bent his legs and opened them. It was awkward—he wasn’t used to it and the fact that a probe was going—he preferred not to think of it at all.

_“If you want, your family can come in.”_

_“That would…”_ He was about to reject the invitation when he imagined what Amanda’s and Mr. Miyagi’s faces may be like. Daniel cleared his throat. _“That would be nice.”_

His friends were let in and took place at his sides, purposely avoiding to even look at what the doctor was doing, just the screen in front of them.

 _“Are we ready?”_ Doctor Harmon asked.

 _“Hai.”_ Mr. Miyagi answered for him, looking more nervous than Daniel was sure he would ever admit.

It made him smile.

Swallowing, he looked at the screen on the side, heart beating fast. 

His mentor took Daniel’s hand, he squeezed it as he blinked at the images appearing in front of them. In this silence, with that thing echoing, Daniel felt like in a movie—as if this wasn’t happening to him and he was just watching an all too familiar scene on screen.

But he swallowed and Harmon smiled.

 _“There it is!”_ He had said. _“Would you look at that, Mr. LaRusso?”_

Daniel blinked, watching the black and white picture on screen. The beta signaled a circle with his finger, laughing gently.

_“That’s your pup, Mr. LaRusso.”_

He blinked a couple of times as Amanda gasped, squeezing his shoulder at the same time Mr. Miyagi did the same with his hand. Daniel swallowed and looked at it—he stayed there looking until the image froze and another sound echoed, and the doctor was smiling at him.

_“And we got a heartbeat.”_

_“That’s—that’s their heartbeat?”_ He asked, voice so tiny and soft, it sounded alien to him.

 _“Yes! A beautiful, strong, healthy heartbeat.”_ Harmon announced. _“You’re eleven weeks, son. And everything seems fine so far.”_ He sighed. _“You’ll have a wonderful path to your pup.”_

Daniel blinked again, chest feeling heavy as he remembered himself sitting in that filthy bathroom at the mini-mall, looking down at the pregnancy test as a baby claimed for their omega parent—he remembered himself laying on his couch, Johnny knocking at their door, and days later crying with Mr. Miyagi.

He could hear his own little sighs and sobs, the movement of Mr. Miyagi’s gentle hand over his back, the clothes moving—Johnny’s knocks, the baby calling, then—

A heartbeat.

Daniel’s baby heartbeat.

For a second, it was all he could hear. Just him and his baby, the little black point on the screen, the soft sound around him, just them.

It revived his heart in a way he hadn’t felt before. 

Daniel had no comparison to it but maybe the memory of running around Coney Island with his dad one last Summer, practicing kata with Mr. Miyagi in the wild with the sun high in the blue sky, seeing the Okinawa beach for the first time.

Waving at his mom from the podium as she cried standing, watching him at graduation from college, their big accomplishment.

He swallowed a sob, only to choke on it and immediately start crying as if a water tap had been open in him. 

Which lead him to—

_“This pregnancy shit it’s insane!”_

Daniel had cried for almost an hour.

His head _hurt_. 

He was nauseous and had lost a bunch of money he was sure wouldn't hurt, but the moment he passed the card, he realized just how expensive it was to be pregnant.

Amanda gave him a look as they took the elevator together, leaving Mr. Miyagi in the lobby as he was to attend some repairs he had left aside to accompany Daniel to his appointment. He took a deep breath and shook his head.

“This is so weird…” Daniel murmured. “I just—I can’t believe this is happening.”

“Man, you sure were too calm to be true.” His friend said, Daniel opened his eyes and looked at her. “Don’t give me those eyes, you know what I mean.”

“You’re awful. You are an awful, awful beta.”

“Eh.” She shrugged. “Call me my assignation all you want, it doesn’t change the fact that my mouth speaks nothing but the truth.”

Daniel shook his head, stomach growling at the same time he was feeling nauseous.

Was this it? Was he going to be feeling like his body didn’t belong to him for long nine months? 

He shook his head again as the doors opened and they stepped out, walking together to his door when the one in front opened, letting out one Johnny Lawrence, alpha, whose blue eyes opened wide at the sight of Daniel.

“LaRusso—” He breathed out, making Amanda move her head to one side as if wondering what his tone meant. Daniel decided not to dive into that rabbit hole. “Hey, I—“ He cleared his throat. “The books.” Johnny signaled to his door.

When he turned, he confirmed the books were sitting on a box right at the door’s side. A note was over, the same paper as the one he used to pass Harmon's card, and Daniel blinked, looking back at Johnny.

“I got distracted—“ He signaled behind him to Mr. and Mrs. Batson’s door.

“Thank you…” He murmured. “Uh, what—what are you doing?”

“Uh,” The alpha scratched behind his head. “Well. Miyagi wasn’t around and Mrs. Batson had a sink emergency, so I just…”

“Oh, that’s really nice!” Amanda interrupted. She looked as surprised with her words as Daniel felt, frowning at why in the world had Amanda speak up about it? “I mean—-hi. Amanda Johson.”

Johnny extended his hand to her, taking Amanda’s and shaking it. “Johnny Lawrence.”

They stayed in silence, looking at each other like crazy people, until Johnny looked away and signaled the elevator.

“See you around, LaRusso.” He said. “Nice meeting you, Miss Johnson.”

“Amanda it’s okay!” She said as he walked away, Johnny lifted a hand as to say got it, and disappeared behind the elevator’s doors.

He knew, in that silence, that the way he could smell this man was not common—he knew what he was smelling was really him, not cologne or the absent smell of suppressants. No, it was the masculine smell of one Johnny Lawrence, alpha, that was wood and mint, evergreene.

(Oil and beer sometimes, sweat, a soft detergent—and something else, something that was just him.)

Daniel knew it as Amanda blinked a couple of times and looked at him.

“You said he was an asshole!” She commented.

“He is, he just—” Daniel shook his head. “I don’t know, I guess he’s looking down on me for being pregnant. Maybe it’s just a joke.”

“What?”

He could _hear_ her frown as he unlocked the door and opened wide for the two of them to walk in. He was about to grab the box of books once Amanda was inside when the elevator’s door opened and he heard hurried steps.

When he looked back, Johnny was jogging towards him.

“Johnny?”

“Sorry—“ He said, breathless but immediately taking the box. “You shouldn’t be carrying heavy shit.”

“I—“

“You came back!” Amanda said with a smile. “Apologies, he’s tired after the day. We got a little competitive spirit going on at the dealership and made too many tours and sales.”

“Sounds fun.” Johnny commented awkwardly, leaving the box over the dinner table and he blinked, seeing the alpha in their apartment, talking to his friend. “If you see shitty remarks in the pages, ignore them.” He said, turning to look at Daniel. “They’re from my pup’s mom.”

Daniel smiled, remembering the kid. “So that _is_ your son!”

The alpha frowned, looking at him. Daniel swallowed as Amanda’s eyebrows talked all on their own, asking what the hell he was talking about now.

“Uh, just… I think I saw you with your baby a few days ago in the mini-mall?” Daniel licked his lips. “He’s really cute.”

Johnny blinked, looking down before clearing his throat. “Thanks.” 

Something was there. 

Daniel blinked and tried again. “I didn’t know your baby—“

“Pup.” Johnny corrected, looking up. “The children of alphas are called pups.”

He blinked again, trying his best not to laugh. Daniel nodded. 

It was such an old fashioned way of things, this man surprised him more every day. Did he call Carmen’s baby a pup to her face? Likely, Johnny had no filter. 

“Oh, your kid will be a pup!” Amanda said, Johnny looked back at her as Daniel frowned. “Right? The other father, he’s an alpha.”

He only nodded, not really wanting to think about it. Johnny looked at him again, this time his eyes wandered around for a few seconds, then nodded. 

“I should get going.”

“Yeah—” Daniel moved aside to let him walk away. “Thanks for the books!”

“It’s fine, we don’t use them anyway.” 

Daniel shook his head, watching him go as Amanda walked towards him. She put a hand on his shoulder, door wide open in front of them, alpha gone.

“He doesn’t seem so bad.”

To his luck, he had to admit he didn’t.

“I mean…” But he insisted, looking at Amanda. “He’s not with his child’s mom,” and narrowed his eyes to make a point. “There must be a reason why.”

Amanda shrugged, nodding as she walked towards the table and Daniel to the door. 

He took a deep breath before closing it, unsure if it was his imagination, or Johnny’s scent had stayed there between them.

* * *

It all changed with a phone call.

_“Ma—“_

_“No, no. Listen—this doctor is excellent. I went with her when I lived over there, and she’s the best.”_ Lucille said. _“Just check it out!”_

_“Mom, what’s wrong with Doctor Harmon?”_

_“He’s a rich people doctor, Daniel. You don’t have the money for that.”_

_“It’s not so bad…”_

Whatever he said, his mother insisted and that was how he found himself waking up extra early on a Wednesday to see her doctor.

Daniel yawned, looking at himself in the mirror as he dressed. He was not showing yet but each time he was in here, he looked.

He put a hand on his abdomen and tried to imagine what he would look like, how strange he would seem, how big. He was never a muscles kind of guy, his limbs always long and tin, and imagining himself with a swollen belly, it—

It made him smile a little.

Yawning again, he moved forward and finished getting ready for the appointment. 

_“That early?”_ Amanda had asked when Daniel said so. _“I would hate to be you, Anoush.”_

 _“Yeah…”_ the man nodded then looked up with wide eyes. _“Wait, what? What does that mean?”_

_“It’s your turn! You’re going with Daniel to his appointment.”_

_“But—“_

_“Do it for our collective baby, Anoush!”_

Daniel shook his head, looking at his phone to find Anoush was already waiting for him upstairs. At least, he wouldn’t have to drive this time.

He went out of his room, frowning when he realized the lights were on. Daniel walked down the short hallway, soon approaching the kitchen where he found—

“Oh.” He blinked, Johnny looked at him immediately. “Hi.”

“Good morning.” Johnny answered, holding a mug to his mouth.

Daniel blinked again, unable to help himself as he looked Johnny up and down because—he had never seen him like this before, with his uniform on.

The navy blue seemed darker in this light but Daniel could actually see his own face in the reflection of each button. And was it his imagination or did his shoulders look wider with that jacket?

As messy as his roommate was, his uniform was immaculate and Daniel had to admit, he fit well in it.

“Why are you awake?” Johnny asked as he left his mug on the counter.

He licked his lips and looked away. “Uh, I have an appointment…”

When the alpha didn’t answer, Daniel looked up. The man was looking at him with a small frown on his face and Daniel realized—it was now or never.

“Hey, so—“ He cleared his throat. “Thanks for Doctor Harmon’s card.”

“Sure.” Johnny said, taking the mug again. “So, are you… interrupting it?”

Daniel shook his head, Johnny nodded.

“Will it be a problem?” Daniel asked, Johnny walked away to the sink.

“No, but maybe eventually for you?” He said, sounding unsure as he left the mug there. “You’ll want the space.”

“No,” Daniel started when Johnny turned again and leaned on the sink. His eyes roamed around the stretch of his chest in that uniform and Daniel shook his head. “No, I think—it will be fine. I could use the help with the rent and services, especially now. So… it’s okay if you stay.”

After a while, Johnny nodded.

“Unless it makes you uncomfortable.”

Johnny shook his head and Daniel sighed, looking at the tie on the counter.

"Problems with your tie?"

"Uhm," Johnny moved from the sink, walking to the tie and tanking it. "Yeah, Rosa helps me with it."

"You don't know how to tie one?" Daniel smiled. The alpha shook his head. "Your dad wasn't of the teaching kind?"

The man looked at him and the smile on his face erased. Daniel swallowed as Johnny walked out the kitchen towards the dining table.

"No, he was of the _leaving when my seventeen years old girlfriend gets pregnant_ type."

Shit.

"Johnny, I'm sorry—"

"Don't be, LaRusso." 

He swallowed, walking away with a heavy stomach. As he looked back where Johnny was taking his things, he realized his suitcase was at the door with his hat over it. Daniel wondered what he looked like with it.

"Well, gotta go." Daniel said, turning to see Johnny and finding him dangerously close to his face. "John—"

"Here." The man offered a sandwich in a ziploc bag. Daniel blinked a couple of times. "You're pregnant, stop jumping meals."

Hesitantly, Daniel took the bag and nodded.

"Isn't this your breakfast?"

"I can make another one but you're leaving now. Eat it. Don't drink coffee."

"I know, I know…"

"Eat."

The intensity on those blue eyes made him swallow again, but Daniel simply nodded and moved away again as he watched the man leave everything again and get into the kitchen.

Daniel looked at the tie on the table, thinking on returning nice gestures, but—

He shook his head.

"Thanks, Johnny." He called, the alpha made a sound in the kitchen. "Have a nice flight!"

Johnny appeared through the breakfast island, saluting him with a small smile and Daniel chuckled, shaking his head as he left the apartment.

Later, as he sat in Anoush's car listening to his friend complain of how early it was, Daniel bit the sandwich and moved his eyes to one side, savoring it and slowly smiling.

He ate in silence, shaking his head when Anoush asked him for some, and licking his fingers when he was done.

Daniel smiled through the appointment, said his thanks as he left, shook his head when he found Anoush asleep on the bench outside.

He drove them to an Applebees to have breakfast together, and he only asked for something to drink, already knowing he was going to have a good day, and that he was staying with Dr. Harmon, and that he was getting Johnny to make him sandwiches more often.

* * *

"I researched it for you." Amanda said, slapping a sheet on his desk and making Daniel frown. "Apparently, the life of the pilot’s partner is shitty!”

Daniel blinked, slowly frowning at the declaration. Amanda signaled at the paper with her chin, sitting in front of Daniel as he sighed.

“What is this?”

“All you need to know about if you want an alpha pilot to be your baby’s stepdaddy.”

He barely resisted the urge to roll his eyes, turning the paper and looking at it with a frown. The first thing that called his attention was the photo on the side.

“Where did you get this?”

Daniel looked at it, at Johnny in his uniform including the hat and a tag that read Cpt. J. Lawrence and he couldn’t help but smile.

_Captain._

He bit his bottom lip and shook his head, looking at what his friend had printed—

“It’s easy, I just put his name on google and L. A. pilot and ta-dah! Results.”

Daniel shook his head, actually horrified with what he was reading.

“Amanda, what the hell is this?”

“You like it?” She asked, sarcastic as ever. “Got it from The Pilot’s Omega, a website for omegas and betas married to pilots.”

Daniel looked up in horror. “What?”

“I’m serious!”

He didn’t doubt she was. Still, the woman stood and walked over to Daniel’s computer, typing in to show him the website as Daniel kept reading what she had printed during work hours when she was supposed to be in her own office over at marketing.

 _Are pilots rich?_ , the sheet read, and the answer was no before an in depth explanation of how wrong society’s view on piloting was—Daniel swallowed, frowning at the twelve free days per month and the fact he knew his roommate only had one free day a week.

Where was Johnny working? It wouldn’t hurt to know, just so he could put up a complaint for how much the man seemed to be working in comparison to what he was reading here.

“Look,” Amanda called his attention and Daniel looked up at the screen, “see? The Pilot’s Omega!”

He blinked a couple of times, looking at the website that also offered a forum, facebook page and other social media profiles.

They looked at each other, both notoriously trying not to laugh, until they couldn’t help themselves and they were laughing loudly.

"What's going on here?" They heard from the door, both looked immediately. "Amanda, I've been waiting for—“

"Yeah, yeah, going…" She answered to the supervisor. Amanda shook her head as she left the area. "You know what that dude needs?"

Daniel blinked, clicking on the site distractedly. "Dick?"

"Yeah…" She sighed. "Anyway, see you at lunch?"

"Yep." Daniel smiled at her as she left.

Sighing, Daniel lookee back at the paper on his desk. Johnny looked like somebody else completely here—smiling and standing on all his height. 

He wondered if he had a pilot voice for when he greeted the flight and gave instructions into the speaker. Did the fly attendants liked him? Had Daniel ever flown on his plane and never knew?

The site offered things he didn't understand. Support for a life he didn't have and was only curious now because, for the first time, Johnny's job seemed real and not something a kid would wish to be when they grew older.

Daniel closed the website, taking the paper to get rid of it when he was met again with the picture.

"Shit…" 

Slowly, he folded the sheet, saving it on his desk as his heart hammered in his chest.

* * *

It ruined him for the rest of the week, the uniform.

He didn't see much of Johnny as usual and the questions he wanted to ask him seemed to become more and more silly the more he thought of them.

At the end, he said nothing.

He simply looked at the city names on his fridge and wondered if Johnny liked it here or Seattle the most.

* * *

“Johnny?” Daniel asked as he answered the phone. “Hi…”

“Hey,” the alpha said on the other side of the line. Murmurs were heard from it, and Daniel frowned as he looked at the clock on his computer. “I’m—I’m just gonna ask you directly—“

“What’s wrong?”

“My pup’s mother has to take care of her eldery aunt and there’s no one else. She fell and she’s in the hospital but will need help for a while once she’s let out…”

“Oh.”

“So… is it, is it okay if Robby stays with us for a while?”

 _Robby_.

Daniel remembered the little kid, looking at him with his big eyes under the sun. He remembered the sound of his sobs as he was separated from his father, the way Johnny had kissed his forehead and lingered his lips there.

He swallowed, nodding like a moron.

“LaRusso?”

“Oh,” he chuckled. “I’m sorry, I—I nodded. Yes, of course.” He said, feeling his hand sweat as he held the phone. “It’s your home too.”

“Right.” Johnny said, sounding relieved. “Okay, see you later.”

“Yes!” He answered, looking again at the clock. Past twelve. “Can’t wait to meet him.”

He heard Johnny chuckle, making Daniel smile as the line went silent again and the alpha was gone. Daniel blinked, stomach turning as he thought of it—a baby in the apartment.

The thought remained with him as he came out and took on a few sales himself, making Anoush roll his eyes and Amanda laugh when she saw them discuss it as she came and went with the marketing team.

As the working day came to an end, Daniel found himself with a hand on his belly as he sat in his office and thought once more of the little boy looking at him.

Robby. He’s name must be Robert. Had he been named after someone? He’d been thinking lately, that if his baby was a boy—he would like to call him Antonio, like his father.

But what if they were a girl? 

“Amanda is a great name, just saying.” His friend said after listening to him, both him and Anoush looked at her. “What?”

“Okay, but why not Lucille?” Anoush asked.

Daniel stood, taking his things as they all were ready to leave for the day. He wondered if Johnny and Robby were already at home. 

What were they gonna get for dinner? Would it be strange to Johnny if he proposed to eat together? They’d never truly done it before, just eat at the same time sometimes—

“Please,” Daniel scoffed, “you know how many Lucilles there are in my family?” He showed his fingers as he named them. “My mom, my grandmother, and her mother’s name was Lucille too. I have a second cousin Lucille and a niece Lucille. Oh! And my cousin Lu chose Lucille as her name too. Enough with that.”

He heard them laugh as they walked towards the entrance. He opened the door for them, letting Amanda out first then Anoush.

“Anyway, guys. Wish me luck.”

“Luck?” Amanda’s eyes opened wider. “What’s going on?”

“Well,” Daniel licked his lips, “Johnny’s kid will stay with us for a few days.”

His friends’ eyes opened wide, both looking at him with great attention.

“Apparently, Robby’s mother is taking care of an aunt and will need Johnny to look after him for a few days as she settles.”

“Robby.” Anoush repeated. “First name basis! Good for you, man.”

“What does that mean?” 

Amanda put a hand on her chest. “I’m so glad you’re getting closer to your alpha.”

“Oh my God.” Daniel shook his head, walking away. “I hate you!”

“Say hi to baby Robby from auntie Mandy!”

“You should start to tell him about his little brother coming!”

“Shut up!”

* * *

Somehow, he found himself getting home at the same time Johnny did—kid, baby bag, suitcase and a bunch of baby stuff in tow.

“Oh, let me help—“

“No, you are not carrying heavy things!”

“But—“

“LaRusso—“

“Daniel-san!” Both looked at Mr. Miyagi right away, the man had a frown that made Daniel feel like a scolded child. “No heavy lifting!”

“Yes.” He sighed in defeat. “I’m sorry. I just want to help.”

He felt the alpha shook his head behind him, Daniel looked back and was met with a pair of big green eyes looking at him. 

The baby smiled.

“Hi.” He said and Daniel felt his chest contract at the sound of that little voice.

“Hi!” Daniel said back, Johnny looked at his son as he kept on carrying him and Mr. Miyagi took the box of things at Johnny’s feet. “You talk already? I’m Daniel.”

“He doesn’t say much…” Johnny murmured. The baby bag fell from his shoulder and he balanced it against his torso and arm. “Ugh—“

“At least let me help with that.” Daniel suggested. Johnny looked at him for a few seconds and slowly passed the bag at him. “I can take the suitcase, too.”

“Okay.”

After Johnny passed him the bag and suitcase, they walked together to the elevator with Mr. Miyagi behind. 

Daniel sighed, watching as the two other men got in and left the boxes they were carrying aside for a few seconds as they were taken up.

“Hi.” Robby said again, Daniel turned and saw him smiling at Mr. Miyagi. “Tobby.”

“You’re Tobby today?” Johnny asked, the baby looked at him with his hand in his mouth. “Robby.” He said slowly.

“Dobby.”

“Robby.”

“Dddobby…”

The alpha shook his head with a smile, Daniel felt his own almost hurting with how much it was showing and he sighed, looking away to catch their reflection in the elevator’s wall.

As he stood at Johnny’s side, carrying the baby bag while Robby waved cutely at Mr. Miyagi, who was making funny faces at him, it occurred to him that if they were seen by anyone who didn’t know them, they would look like something else.

His cheeks burned and Daniel looked down at his feet. 

The elevator stopped and they went out, walking together down the hallway, the sound of the suitcase following them until Daniel stood in front of the door to open it.

“Where to, Johnny-san?” Mr. Miyagi asked as they walked in, Johnny closed the door with his feet.

“My room, I guess…” He walked in first, Daniel watched as the baby looked around with his hand stuck in his mouth.

Daniel followed them after thinking of it—he hadn’t been in Johnny’s room since he moved in, the alpha smell was always strong when he caught it open sometimes and he wondered if the fact would affect him still now that he was pregnant.

At the end, he walked in and stopped on his feet, swallowed at the intensity of the smell.

“Just put it on the bed, old man.”

“No, germs.” Mr. Miyagi refused, leaving the box with Robby’s thing in the ground. “Safer for the pup.”

Johnny chuckled, moving a towel away from the cradle Daniel didn’t know was in their apartment. He slowly put Robby down in it, moving quickly to the box from where he got a couple of toys he gave to the baby.

“How long will pup stay?” 

“Just a few days, four at most.” Johnny admitted, sounding strange—a mix of anxiety and excitement all at once, looking nervous as he looked around his room. “I need to clean up…”

“Yes.” Daniel said, his voice sounding louder than he intended. Both men looked at him. “Please, do clean up or I’ll be worried about that kid for days.”

“Ha-ha.” Johnny walked towards Daniel, standing in front of him with a soft annoyed frown and that uniform. “Shut it, LaRusso. We'll see how you do with a pup around."

Daniel's cheeks burned, Mr. Miyagi laughed as he got closer to the crib and smiled down at Robby while Johnny took the bag off Daniel's shoulder, making him look up for a few seconds as it happened.

He had the bluest eyes he's ever seen. 

"See you!" Mr. Miyagi said his goodbye to the kid. "Miyagi has to leave, Robby-san."

The baby waved at him cutely.

"Cute pup." Mr. Miyagi said, making Daniel smile. "What a sweet pup."

He couldn't help the huge smile as he saw the old man with the baby, the way the kid was obviously enjoying the attention and Mr. Miyagi's baby voice.

Eventually, he left as told and Daniel stayed still in Johnny's room, watching him clean up as Robby followed him around with big green eyes.

"LaRusso," the alpha called him and Daniel looked back, "are you okay?" 

Daniel blinked and nodded, slowly walking away as Johnny kept taking empty cans from around the room, still in his pilot uniform.

Before closing the door, he saw the baby looking at him as he showed his hand up, opening and closing it in his own way of waving. Daniel's heart hurt nicely at the sight and waved back.

"Bye." The kid said, making Daniel giggle as he moved his fingers to say goodbye.

"Bye…."

"Bye." The baby said again, louder with a smile.

"Bye!" Daniel answered, smiling back.

"Bye!" Robby repeated, this time waving as everyone normally would.

He looked at Johnny by instinct, the man was smiling softly at him and the sight made him put a hand on his abdomen.

Daniel closed the door and stood there with his hand on the handle.

The smell of his alpha roommate was stuck on his nose. 

He was making lasagna for dinner.

* * *

Dinner was a success and Daniel got extra time with Robby as Johnny showered.

They sat on a blanket in the living room as Robby showed him his toys and put his dinosaur plushie in Daniel's lap without a word.

"Dada!" The kid greeted his father with open arms when the man showed up again, and Daniel thought that would be the end of his time with the kid.

But Johnny sat down with them. Patiently repeated the kid's name so he would learn it, calling everything else by its name as if he'd been instructed to.

"According to a friend, who is a shrink or something, we gotta call everything by its name when the kid is listening. None of that little something… stuff." He finished, obviously trying his best not to say bad words with the kid around.

"Yeah?" Daniel sighed, putting the dinosaur alongside the plushie plane and the sunflower. "I'll keep that in mind."

"Yeah, you do." Johnny said with his son on his lap. "How is it going?"

Daniel smiled at him. "Pretty well, actually." He licked his lips. "I have an appointment next week."

He nodded. "Are you going with Harmon?"

"Yeah, I liked him best."

"He's pretty cool, right?" He said, like asking Robby who was looking up at him, sitting between his open legs. "Say hi to the old man from me."

Daniel chuckled. "I'll do it."

He watched him kiss the top of Robby's head, then put his forehead over it as the kid played.

The act was small, insignificant—but looked from here, it felt different. Important. And not for the first time, Daniel wondered what was there.

All three days the kid stayed, Johnny was home. 

Daniel didn't ask if he had taken days off or what, but the man was there every day since he left and came back. 

They had Carmen over on the second day and on the third, Johnny took Robby to Carmen's and once again, Daniel found himself wondering if they were dating.

He waved at Robby when they said goodbye, and watched Johnny walk away with his kid, Mr. Miyagi and Carmen, talking of her child and how she'll miss working when the time comes.

Looking at them go, Daniel found himself alone, and for the first time wished it was not the case as he put a hand on his belly.

* * *

Turns out, it was completely normal, according to Dr. Harmon.

“Biologically speaking, a lot of people respond instinctively to pregnancy in ways we can’t control. You’re an unmated omega going through this by yourself, so your body will sometimes feel the absence of a partner but the trick, Mr. LaRusso, is that we are not just instincts and flesh.”

Daniel loved to hear this man talk.

He smiled, as the doctor kept explaining how there were talks and other therapeutic methods to help him go through it if the loneliness became unbearable.

As the appointment went on and his ultrasound showed the process of his baby, Daniel found himself feeling secure on his feet again.

While this time he had come alone, it didn’t feel sad or inappropriate. He stood up from the examination table and waited for the promised picture as he thought of his day ahead and what he may get for dinner later.

“Here we go!” Harmon came back into the room with a smile and a new folder, giving it to Daniel before handing him the photo. “For everyone to know the pup!”

Daniel smiled at him, accepting the picture and looking at it with a smile. The baby was now looking like one, clear as day, small and so fragile still but getting stronger every day. 

“We can tell the primary gender next week if you want to know.” Dr. Harmon said. “Most parents want to know, some others wait until we can run tests to know the whole package, and a few decide to wait for the future. Whatever you decide is alright.”

He looked up at the doctor, holding his breath. The truth was that he had scheduled this appointment out of desperation to be told it was okay to feel alone. He wondered if he was coming off as an annoyance to the doctor, but the man kept on his kind smile as he spoke to him and everyone else he had seen him interact with.

“I think I would like to know. Too nosy to wait.”

“Well, you tell Janet outside and she’ll schedule our next appointment without problem.” He smiled at him.

“Oh, and—” Daniel remembered, going through his words and stopping at pup again. “Johnny—Johnny wanted to say hi.”

The man moved his head to one side, but soon smiled bright, recognition shining in his eyes and the sight made Daniel’s chest feel full for some reason.

“Johnny? Johnny Lawrence?” He said, laughing with gusto after. “How do you know that kid? I haven’t seen him in a while.”

“Yeah, he’s my roommate.” Daniel said, blinking. “I thought you were his baby’s mother doctor, but you guys know each other beyond that, isn’t it?”

“Well, yes to both.” Harmon smiled again. “I followed Shannon’s pregnancy and birth. But I’ve known Johnny since he was as tall as this.” He signaled half his height with a finger. “He’s one of my son’s best friends.”

Daniel smiled while nodding, imagining a young and small version of Doctor Harmon and Johnny running around the Valley. 

“It’s good to know we are between friends.” Harmon said. “I’ll see you next week, Mr. LaRusso?”

“Yes, I’ll talk to Janet.”

The man nodded, turning around as they walked together to the entrance when suddenly, the doctor stopped and looked back at Daniel.

“Actually, now that you mention Johnny—“ Harmon started, “we got a little support program going, it’s an idea that started in the 70s.” He turned completely to face Daniel. “But some alphas emotionally support single omegas during pregnancy when they have emotional or hormonal problems.”

“Uh?”

“You know, they keep them company.” He sighed. “It sounds like an archaic idea, I know, I know…”

Daniel blinked, seeing the doctor’s honesty in his face as he spoke with a soft smile.

“But it turns out, hormones? Powerful. Our feelings? Even more so.” He chuckled. “My son’s wife supervises this program. This is a family clinic, Mr. LaRusso, and we work closely together with our clients. If it comes to worse on your end, Jeny can work with you and find someone who may help you with those dark feelings crawling in the night.”

Daniel nodded, licking his lips before speaking. “Is there—is there somewhere I can get more information? Just in case…”

Something was making noise in his head.

“Of course!”

He saw the man move to his office area again, searching for something in his desk as Daniel stood there, looking back at the last few weeks and how he’d been feeling at certain things: Robby and Johnny’s smell, the sight of Carmen and Johnny laughing together, the loneliness of his room every night and morning. 

“Here—”

Wait, Johnny and—

“This.” Harmon showed him a pamphlet. "Basic info and numbers to call, website, all you can access to!"

"Thank you." Daniel murmured. 

He looked at the paper as they walked out. Daniel blinked, wondering—well—

* * *

"Are you and Carmen dating?"

"What?"

He'll never admit it, but Daniel was awake this early just to talk to Johnny. The man looked at him with a frown as if he had spoken in another language and he was trying to come up with an answer.

Johnny looked down at his coffee and sighed.

"Mr. Harmon told you about the program thing…" 

That was not the answer he thought he'd get.

Daniel moved his head to one side. "Yes?"

“It’s a one time thing.” The alpha said, Daniel’s brain felt dusty. “But it’s not… dating, you know? I’m helping with really silly things.”

Silence followed that.

They had sat down to have coffee at the table like normal people, wishing each other good morning then minding their own business until Daniel opened his mouth.

Before that, Daniel had been entertained with the fact that Johnny had an old phone he had never seen before. It almost looked like a toy—still with a physical keyboard and just one camera.

“Like—“ Johnny felt the need to keep explaining. “Just be there for her, like any other friend.”

“The website said scenting and other physical stuff—“

“Fuck.” Johnny put his coffee aside, closing his eyes and holding his head with both hands, elbows on the table. “What do you want, LaRusso?”

It occurred to him that Johnny was pretty old fashioned alpha.

He called his son pup, let a rut happen every six months, scented his room. He was even like a man out of time, unaware of the modern world, phones and computers included.

Johnny hadn’t even known what Harry Potter was once Daniel made a joke about it, and his reaction had been too ridiculous and innocent to be a joke. 

The alpha looked up, Daniel swallowed.

“Nothing.” He answered. “You don’t seem like someone who would… get involved in something like that.”

Johnny frowned at him. “You don’t know me.”

His mouth opened, then closed. What was he gonna say? Daniel licked his lips.

“Sorry.”

“Yeah, whatever.”

And they were back to square one.

Daniel sighed deeply as he saw him stand up to leave his mug on the sink. He heard Johnny go around the kitchen and Daniel fixated his eyes on his tea, wondering why he lost all tact every time he tried to have a conversation with this man.

He sighed, shaking his head and standing up. He could sleep for at least another hour before work.

“I don’t scent her.” Johnny said as Daniel left his empty mug on the sink. He looked at the alpha. “Her room. I scent her room sometimes.”

Daniel nodded. Johnny turned to finish his sandwich, his stomach _reacted_ at the sight of it.

“I pass an arm over her shoulder when watching TV, at most we cuddle a little.” He sighed. “I gave her some old t-shirts to nest. That’s it.”

He nodded again, cheeks feeling hot.

“So what?” Johnny finally looked at him. “Are you thinking of going to Jen for a match?”

A match.

Daniel smiled at Johnny and shook his head.

“No, I was just curious.” He answered. “Sorry, I—“

“Save it.” He took the ziploc bag and the other sandwich he had on a plate. “Eat.”

The alpha passed him said plate and Daniel took with both hands, blinking.

“Girly tea is not breakfast.”

And then he was gone.

Daniel heard him take his things and leave the apartment. He stood there with his sandwich and slowly turned to look through the kitchen’s island.

He thought of their conversation and his own hot cheeks, how he had likely blushed—because he imagined it all, he imagined it was him who Johnny was helping.

It would be so easy, nesting just in the other room, maybe taking a nap in his room so he wouldn’t have to go scent his—Johnny’s arm behind him while watching TV.

He thought of his uniform, his jacket—what it may smell like. As intense as his room? Softer with detergent?

Daniel sighed, leaving the plate over the breakfast island, smiling at his sandwich.

***

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Update February 5, 2021: My health hasn't been better since I edited and posted this fic. I have covid and it hasn't been easy. I don't know when I'll be able to update, but please know I don't plan on abandoning this fic at all. Thank you for all your comments and support, it means a lot.
> 
> There's a chance I may post something short I wrote weeks ago, but I make no promises. 
> 
> Thank you for understanding.
> 
> -
> 
> Next chapter coming next week, if my health gets better. Thank you all for reading!


	2. monkeys & 20 days of waiting

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gifts are made and someone comes home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm very sorry for the late update, but I really hope you enjoy this chapter. I'm already working on chapter 3 and 4! Expect next chapter next week... also, have you noticed the new characters added?
> 
> PS: don't kill me.

The anticipation was killing him. 

The silence as the process continued and he looked at the screen was only torture at this point, but Daniel remained quiet and motionless, letting the doctor work.

“Let's see…” Dr. Harmon murmured, moving around as the baby figured on screen in front of them. “Looking good!”

Daniel smiled at the sight, at how quickly his baby was taking a more complete form. 

It was funny, how this little thing could change so much in just a week as he felt the same everyday—no belly yet, not many other symptoms either. 

He heard a gasp at his side, and Daniel looked at Mr. Miyagi blinking at the sight.

“And we have a visual!” Harmon announced. “Sure you wanna know, son?”

He nodded. “Yes, please—I need to know!”

“Patience, Daniel-san…” Mr. Miyagi put a hand on his shoulder.

Daniel smiled up at him knowing he was as anxious to know as him.

“Well, until further notice—that’s your baby daughter on screen, Mr. LaRusso.”

Daniel looked at the little form on the screen as the doctor kept talking. He felt his heart jump, suddenly hurting nicely as he smiled, looking back at Mr. Miyagi.

"It's a girl…" Daniel murmured, the man smiled at him, looking proud. "It's a little girl…"

**You're My Nomad And I Love You Sideways**

**Chapter II**

**Monkeys & 20 Days Of Waiting**

Daniel had no idea how the hell he was supposed to survive Lucille LaRusso.

"Ma…" He murmured for god-knows-what time during the same videocall. 

"No, no." She interrupted once more. "No, young man, you listen to me now—"

To be fair, that was all Daniel had been doing for the past half an hour, listening to his mother list the many things he was doing wrong by having a roommate, going to a "rich people doctor", working, and being unmated.

He reminded himself that while his mother was pretty progressive most times, she was still a woman of her time and family, an education from another century, several years before he was born were still following her and, sometimes, she would be like this.

Daniel let her talk, tell him what he should be looking into as he looked down at the photo he was given during his last appointment, a smile appearing on his face instantainely.

There was his little girl, growing and becoming, moving and feeding from him as his body snuggled her and protected her until she was ready to come.

 _"Have you thought of name?"_ Mr. Miyagi had asked as Lucille was asking now, "What have you thought of her name?"

Daniel blinked, sighing before shaking his head.

"Not much, really." He answered. "I—I wouldn't want to call her Antonia or Antonella, I think there's…" Daniel looked down, swallowing. "There's still a chance I may have a boy someday…"

Lucille chuckled. "One baby at the time, sweetheart." She reminded him, making Daniel smile and look up again. "Well, I guess there’s still time to see what name may fit her better.”

“How did you choose?” Daniel sighed. “How did you and dad choose my name?”

The woman smiled at him, suddenly lost in thought before giving a sigh of herself, looking back at him with soft eyes.

“We had a list of names, actually.” She remembered. “The one of top was Vincenzo, you know, like your grandfather—”

“Yeah.”

“But then you were born,” his mother moved her head to one side, “and your father looked at me and said exactly what I was thinking, _he doesn’t look like a Vincenzo_.” She said, laughing as Daniel smiled at her. “We went through all the names… and then the next morning after you arrived, I woke up and he had you in his arms…”

She showed it to him, her arms empty—but he could see it. He could imagine his father with a small blue bean that had been him and Danie felt his nose burn a little as his mother kept her story, voice filled with emotions, likely thinking the same as him.

“And he said Daniel.” Lucille said. “His name’s Daniel.”

That his father wasn’t here for this.

He’ll be a grandfather without enjoying it in life, won’t see his granddaughter grow up and become a lady, accomplish her dreams, be someone, carry his name.

Lucille took a deep breath and Daniel bit the inside of his cheek, trying his best not to start crying right there.

“He never told me why, but we just knew it was the right name.” She nodded. “You’ll know when the time comes, you’ll see.”

Daniel chewed on his bottom lip inside his mouth, nodding. 

The apartment was empty for the day, the absence of his roommate felt heavier now as he was feeling—what was he feeling? Daniel swallowed, listened to his mother for a few more minutes and hung up after showing her once more the photo of his ultrasound.

He stayed in the silence of his room, the warm of the sun filtering through his window, and Daniel blinked away tears. His hormones were playing the worst tricks nowadays and he needed—

“Fuck.” Daniel murmured, standing up to put on his shoes.

He couldn’t stay here for the rest of the day alone.

* * *

For days, he read the books Johnny had given him.

There was something about the little snarky remarks written that didn’t sit well with him, unable to reconcile whoever this was for and the man he’d seen do everything for his son in the past few weeks. 

Daniel found himself frowning at the handwritten notes, sometimes annoyed enough to jump the page or put a finger over the words, just so he wouldn’t have to read it the second he saw the page. 

More than once, he almost took a pen and wrote over them. Shut the hell up. But he didn’t—

The truth was, whoever was living with him was one way with him and likely another with the other people he knew. As he had said before, there must be a reason he’s not with the mother of his pup anyway—and he had no right to judge her and her anger towards Johnny.

Still, he looked at the words, “ _this is the kind of father nobody thinks you’ll be”_ during the chapter about nesting and scenting, alphas that take care of their pregnant omegas the way he knew he did Carmen.

Daniel found himself gripping the book so hard, the pages started to wrinkle and his fingers became white.

“That’s cruel, missy...” He decided, leaving the book on the bed and running to the studio.

He took a pen and sticky notes from the desk, sighing as he went back to his room and sat down in the semi-dark.

It had been nine o’clock when he said he’d go to sleep after finishing the chapter he was on _What To Expect When You’re Expecting_ _—_ _The Omega Edition_ , and Danielw asn’t sure how long it had been but he had read at least three chapters more, and didn’t plan to stop just yet.

Sighing, he carefully cut the sticky part of two notes and put them over the words on the page. He looked away for a few seconds, thinking of another message to leave until he smiled, looking down to write as readable as he could.

_This is the kind of father I see you are_

Johnny had told him he wouldn’t be using the books anymore, but the little correction made him feel better about all the negativity written in the pages. There was almost no chance the guy would ever see it, but still… Daniel sighed, and continued to read until he was yawning and asking himself what hour was it?

Why was he still awake? He looked at the clock, it was almost one AM. 

Daniel swallowed, shaking his head as he marked the page he had last read, scolding himself mnetally as he remembered he had work early in the morning and life continued as usual, it was not stopping just because a little person was forming in his womb.

As he made sure all windows were closed, Daniel walked towards the front door, checking for the locks when he heard voices on the other side, a laugh he knew very well and the sound of wheels on the floor.

He opened the door, almost lured by the noise outside.

The night was quiet for the exception of Mr. Miyagi’s peculiar laugh and Johnny’s voice as steps echoed the hallways. Daniel peeked his head out but didn’t see them, they must be using the stairs.

“Boston was a bitch, though.” Johnny was saying. “Worst coffee I’ve ever taken.”

“All plane coffee is bad, Johnny-san.”

“Yeah, well…” He sighed. “Shannon’s was awesome.”

“Ah. Pup’s mother, that’s why.”

Johnny laughed this time and Daniel walked towards the stairs in his pajamas, barefoot, not really caring that it was late and this was certainly strange.

“How’s Carmen, man? She said she was okay, but Rosa’s text said she was anxious or something…”

“Carmen good. Pup good.” Mr. Miyagi answered. “Just missing Johnny-san.”

There was a pause, Daniel blinked a couple of times.

“How’s Robby-san?”

“Ah,” Johnny sighed. Daniel stood in the middle of the hallways as he thought they had probably stopped in the middle of the stairs.

The acusting in the building was annoying since most neighbors stayed quiet and the hallways were empty. Their street wasn’t too busy, not even during the day, and while the walls weren’t as indiscret, the hallways were.

With how close Daniel was, he could hear it all easily.

“He’s running now.” He chuckled. “Driving Shannon crazy.”

“When is he coming back?”

There was another pause, the steps started again.

“I don’t know.”

It was Daniel’s turn to sigh.

At least Johnny tried. That was what was important, wasn’t it?

He thought of the other father of his daughter, the fact that he didn’t even remember his name. Daniel shook his head, realizing he was already failing her—Amanda was right, he needed to at least try and find the guy.

“How’s…” Johnny cleared his throat, the steps stopped once more and Daniel frowned. “How’s—my roommate, how’s LaRusso?”

Daniel blinked a couple of times.

“Daniel-san?” Mr. Miyagi said, there was some sort of amusement in his voice that made Daniel’s face feel hot. “Good, good. Went to appointment with doctor again.”

“He goes a lot.”

“Ah,” Mr. Miyagi laughed. “Neurotic.”

 _Hey!_ , he wanted to say, Daniel frowned and crossed his arms over his chest.

“He’s just pregnant.” Johnny said, the steps started once more. “He asked about the program the other morning, almost made me choke on my coffee.”

Mr. Miyagi was laughing and it—it suddenly occurred to Daniel how familiar this was, this sounded—this sounded like they knew each other, like Daniel’s suspicions were right and there was more to these two than Mr. Miyagi thought Johnny would be a good roommate for Daniel.

Once, he asked Johnny directly about it. 

The alpha had looked at him for long seconds, then said if Mr. Miyagi hadn’t told him, it was not his place. Ever since, Daniel had wanted to know even more--but the more he insisted, the less his mentor told him.

“So—" Johnny sighed. “This week. Ali may come looking for me.”

Ali?

“Hai. She called.”

“Of course she did. Don’t let her in.”

“No, Ali-san welcome to come always.”

“I hate you, old man.”

Daniel smiled, shaking his head and uncrossing his arms.

He hadn’t seen his roommate in two days, hadn’t seen much of him before since Daniel asked about Carmen and Johnny’s arrangement. To hear him so gentle and tired, that was something Daniel would like to see.

So, he stood at the top of the stairs and waited for them.

Their shadows figured on the wall and soon Daniel could see them making it to their floor, Johnny carrying his suitcase with his hat and jacket under his arm, a paper gift bag on his other hand, Mr. Miyagi with a giant bag of yellow M&M’s. 

“Daniel-san!” His mentor said with surprise. “It’s late, Daniel-san!”

Daniel smiled at him, opening his mouth to answer when Johnny talked before him. “Why are you awake? You need to sleep. Stop losing sleep time!”

The man was looking at him with a frown, but even though he sounded irritated, he wasn’t using his “alpha voice” at all. Daniel wondered if it was something he was deliberately doing, if he was one of the few alphas who knew how to control his tone and not use it with people he didn’t have relation to.

Or maybe, it was just that he was so very tired as he looked.

“I was reading a book.”

Mr. Miyagi scoffed, shaking his head as he walked towards Daniel, pushing him away.

“To bed, Daniel-san!” He said, Daniel smiled as he looked back at Johnny. The frown on his face made his amusement disappear, suddenly feeling like a scolded child. “Come on, come on.”

The three of them walked together, suddenly quiet.

He wondered if they knew he had heard most of their conversation, if they were truly mad at him and tomorrow he’ll have to say some apologies before going to work. Daniel turned to look at them, but Johnny passed him like nothing, opening the front door of their apartment.

“Don’t eat that in one night, old man.” Johnny said, signaling Mr. Miyagi with the same hand he was holding the paper bag. “I don’t want any diabetic comas this week.”

“Hai, hai.” Mr. Miyagi said, showing the chocolates bag. "Thank you very much, Johnny-san."

"It's nothing…" He looked away, seemingly awkward.

Daniel and Mr. Miyagi looked at each other at the same time, smiling. He sighed, following his roommate into the apartment.

"Sorry I worried you, Mr. Miyagi." Daniel said as a way of goodnight. "I'll try to sleep now."

"Hai." He nodded. "Oyasumi, Daniel-san." 

Daniel vowed back. "Good night, Mr. Miyagi."

Slowly, he closed the door once he saw the man take the elevator this time. He had obviously accompanied Johnny on the stairs just to talk to him.

He must be tired.

"Are you having problems sleeping?"

Daniel blinked, turning around to find Johnny in their kitchen, his back to him. He watched as the man put a pot on the stove and then left more bags of candies on the fridge.

"A little bit…" Daniel answered, slowly walking into the kitchen. "What cities did you sleep in this time?"

Johnny looked at him for a few seconds, then went back to his paper bag.

"Boston, two nights." He said. "Just moved around, then took the last flight back home."

He nodded. The man left a mug on the counter and three dolls over it, making Daniel smile.

Did he always get stuffed animals for his son during long flights? It was the sweetest thing.

"Are you having cravings already?"

"Uh, I don't think so. Just eating a lot…" He sighed. "I'm being a sweet tooth, which is a bit weird because I can usually control myself…"

He turned off the stove, moved the pot and let whatever he had there cool off. Johnny looked at the bag again, then at Daniel before looking away, offering him the bag.

"Don't eat them in one night, LaRusso."

He frowned, accepting the bag and immediately looking inside—a couple of giant chocolate bars and big candy bars, obviously taken from the airport, sat there and Daniel blinked.

"Oh…" He looked up to where Johnny was pouring the hot something into a glass. "This must have cost you a fortune, these bars are super expensive—I… I can't accept this."

"Yeah, you can." Johnny said. "I don't eat those and if you don't, they will stay here in this kitchen and be wasted."

"Oh…" He blinked, stomach feeling odd. "Th—thank you…" Daniel looked up, Johnny left the glass to keep cooling on the counter. It was milk. "What about your son?"

"On the fridge." He said. "He also gets a monkey." Johnny signaled the dolls. "Blue shirt for him. Red shirt for Miguel."

Miguel.

Daniel blinked a couple of times. Johnny looked at him.

"Carmen's pup."

"Oh…"

"She's close. Around fifteen or twenty days."

Daniel nodded, heart beating fast.

There was another monkey on the counter.

"Miyagi said you went to Harmon again." He heard Johnny say, Daniel looked up at him slowly. "Are you okay?"

One second, two. He nodded. "Yes." Daniel licked his lips. "Just went to see if we could get the gender."

Johnny nodded, taking the glass. "What are you having?" 

He blinked, watching as Johnny walked towards him, the distance between them so short.

"A girl."

The alpha smiled at him, showing him the glass before passing it to him.

“Finally a girl in this building!” He said, making Daniel laugh as he took the glass. “Man, I always wanted a daughter…”

His stomach shouldn’t be knotting as it was right now. Daniel swallowed, probably visibly for the way Johnny looked away, kind of embarrassed.

"Sorry.” He murmured. “Drink this, try to sleep on your side." He said softly, barely looking at Daniel as he signaled the glass in his hand. "That may help."

He looked at the warm glass, nodding. "Thank you, Johnny."

"Mhm." He took the monkey with a white shirt and moved it a little. Johnny cleared his throat as Daniel drank. He stood in front of him again. "This… white shirt monkey is for your pup."

It was a stuffed monkey, cream colored, cute looking—it had a white t-shirt only and it was big enough to keep a child distracted. 

Daniel took it, looking at it with a smile.

"This is her first gift." Daniel looked up at him, still smiling. "You didn't have to…"

Johnny smiled at him. It was a different smile from when he usually smirked, not his side-smile either. His cheeks went up, ear to ear, a big happy smile.

He cleared his throat, looking away.

"It's fine." Johnny dismissed it, but Daniel could tell he was overwhelmed; he couldn't help but smile. "Just try to sleep, LaRusso."

The alpha passed him again, carrying the other two monkeys to his room. 

"Daniel is fine!" He said.

Johnny came back, looking into the kitchen with an amused expression.

"Good night, LaRusso."

He shook his head, the man smiled and left.

"Good night, John." He murmured to no one, looking at his daughter's first toy.

* * *

For the moment, he left the monkey on his bedside table, right where the photo of the ultrasound rested. 

Daniel fell asleep looking at her and her first possession.

* * *

"Dan, that's sweet." Anoush blinked. "That's… he's into you! I have dated a lot of alphas and I know about these things,” he declared, making Daniel frown, “HE. IS. INTO. YOU.”

“Or,” Daniel looked at him firmly, already tired of this conversation and it had just started, “he’s just a good person and you’re a pig that thinks people will be interesting in you just for doing what any other decent human being would!”

Anoush gasped loudly, making the entire hall look at them as they walked together towards marketing’s office. He could feel their co-worker’s eyes on him and Daniel swallowed, frowning deeper as he wondered why in the name of God was wrong with him now? He had no reason to be this annoyed.

“How dare you? I’m nice to you and I don’t think you’ll be into me for that!”

“You know exactly what I’m talking about.” He said, and before his friend could say anything else, Daniel walked faster towards Sally’s, marketin’s team leader, office. He knocked on her crystal door and the woman looked up. “Hey, Amanda wants to know if your pitch is ready because the boss is.”

“Oh fucking hell—” The girl said, Daniel smiled as he kept walking towards Amanda’s office. “I’ll be there in a minute!” She yelled as Daniel kept walking.

He sighed, thinking of his schedule for the week: he had told Carmen and Rosa they could, and should, call when the moment came. He would be glad to take them to the hospital, knowing his roommate may be caught out of town when it happens.

Mr. Miyagi had asked him to accompany for grocery shopping, which was fantastic since he could use some stuff—food specially. He needed to stop eating this much outside, he needed to start cooking actually _good_ food.

No more McDonalds.

“You know what your problem is?” Anoush catched up with him, making Daniel roll his eyes. “You’re full of shit. You think you’re the only person with the right answers and that’s why you can’t see when someone is into you—you think the world is against you and you are too good for the rest of it anyway!”

Daniel stopped walking just a few inches away from Amanda’s office, turning around to look at Anoush, who stayed put in all his height, firmly looking at him. He could tell his friend knew he was in a bad mood, but he insisted anyway and Daniel--

“No.” He started, trying his best to sound neutral and not about to explode. “Johnny is my roommate and he’s an old fashioned Alpha. He probably thinks he has to provide for me or something.” Daniel swallowed. “Because I’m an unmated omega that is pregnant. That’s it.”

“You should look at yourself while you’re saying that truck of horse shit.” Someone said, both looked behind to find Amanda with crossed arms at the door’s frame of her office. “Not even for a second do you believe that crap.”

“Amanda…”

“You better stop it, guys.” She said, arching an eyebrow. “Come on, we have work to do.”

Thankfully, the rest of the morning was all about the new campaign and the new campaign only, leaving Daniel free of his friends’ judgement he wasn’t understand anyway—none of them knew Johnny the way he did, and it wasn’t like he knew him that well either… but no, the man was not into him.

He was simply a good alpha.

“What have you thought of the alpha thing?” Amanda asked him discreetly as they heard Sally’s pitch. 

Daniel looked at her for a second, then back at the screen, to the presentation. “Not much.” He answered. “I did research it more and asked Johnny a few questions, but—”

“You asked Johnny?” She said, he could hear the frown in her tone. “What do you mean you asked Johnny?”

Daniel bit the inside of cheek. Why was he so embarrassed to talk about this?

“He’s part of the program and is paired up with our neighbor, Carmen.”

“Oh.” She nodded, Daniel licked his lips. “So he _is_ single."

“Not so fast.” He tried to smile, feeling his heart heavy. Was Amanda interested? Johnny was attractive, Amanda even more so… the alpha wouldn’t even hesitate to say yes to a date with her, he was certain. “I heard him talk with Mr. Miyagi about some Ali girl, someone that may go looking for him.”

“Maybe it's his baby mother.”

“No, that’s Shannon.” 

Amanda stayed quiet for a few seconds, Daniel looked at her to see if her interest had gone away or not. Instead, he found her thinking, she was licking the inside of her cheek, he could see her tongue on it as she did that cute lost expression of when things were clearing up inside her head.

“Well, those are too many ladies for one alpha.” She looked at him, their eyes met for a few seconds. “Maybe a sister, man. Who knows.”

Daniel nodded.

“So, if you take the program…” She started, distractedly getting closer to him. Daniel pretended to put attention as he kept his ear close to her. “Are you gonna ask Johnny to help you out?”

His cheeks felt on fire as he shook his head no.

“Why not? It would be so convenient.” She said. Daniel shook his head again. “Think about it, Daniel. You guys live under the same roof, he wouldn’t even need to scent around.”

Which was incorrect, but Daniel didn’t feel like correcting her.

He would be scenting Daniel’s room, maybe even him, just to keep other alphas away when the suppressants eventually lost power as his hormones and pregnancy kept going stronger. Daniel sighed at the thought, trying his best to stop imagining it.

“Plus, Carmen is on her last days before birth,” she continued, “so he’ll be free to take in another omega who needs some relief. Who better than the guy that already lives with him? And who he already feeds and gives gifts to his baby?”

Daniel looked at her, frowning. She arched both eyebrows at him, daring Daniel to say something.

He hated it very much, but—

“Shut up.”

Amanda was right.

She seemed satisfied with that, didn’t say more for the rest of the presentation, then stood to offer her input and part of the pitch, making their boss nod as if he had truly understood what the girls were talking about.

Daniel took a deep breath once all was settled, and they were dismissed.

He walked out the office with Amanda, thinking of how to talk to Anoush again and solve the little awkwardness from the morning. He never liked when he fought with these people. Her friend pushed his shoulder with hers gently.

“I think it’s a good idea, you know?” She said, Daniel looked at her. “To get the Therapy Alpha.”

Daniel felt his face and neck hot, his head hurting as he just—

“He's not a dog!”

Everyone was looking and Amanda’s eyes were wide open.

Daniel cringed, frowning as he realized just how loud that had come up, that he had pretty much yelled for nothing—Amanda didn’t mean harm with her joke, and he had no reason to be this upset at the remote possibility of his friend comparing his roommate to a therapy dog.

He swallowed, shaking his head, finding himself still annoyed anyway.

“I’m sorry.” He cleared his throat. “I haven’t—I haven’t eaten today…”

Amanda nodded, looking more concerned than angry. 

“Let’s get lunch,” she said gently with one hand on his shoulder, “my treat.”

He nodded, feeling like a child as he followed her with his eyes on the ground, unable to look her in the eyes.

This morning, Johnny had left extra early and hadn’t left breakfast as usual for him, and the truth is that Daniel had been so disappointed, he didn’t think of simply making something for himself or buy something on his way to work.

All the and his baby had was a donut.

If Johnny were to find out, he’d call him out.

* * *

For the rest of the week, all Daniel wanted was to get home and sleep.

He didn’t see much of Johnny as usual, but after that one time, the man didn’t miss another day with breakfast and the sight of it made Daniel wonder if he would say yes in case he were to ask for his assistance during the pregnancy.

Amanda insisted on it being a good idea, Anoush thought it weird but showed support at the idea of it being Johnny who would step in.

It was no secret by now that his friends thought they were about to watch a love story unfold right in front of their eyes like in the movies, as if Nora Ephron was writing and directing his life now. May she rest in peace.

“Do you still have your giant chocolate bar?” Amanda asked as they walked into the elevator of his building.

Daniel closed his eyes, nodding and feeling dizzy. Lately, the second the clock hit five pm, he would feel nauseous and tired, then be fine by six. He wondered what kind of schedule his daughter was having down there.

Make-papa-nauseous-after-work seemed to be religious for her now.

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah, don’t worry.” Daniel answered, the elevator stopped and he slowly opened his eyes. “It’s normal, I already asked.”

She smiled at him as the door opened and they stepped out, walking side by side while talking of work when Amanda stopped walking, Daniel looked at her.

“Oh, oh, oh—” She blinked fast, Daniel looked in front and saw someone sitting at his front door’s side. He frowned. “Uh, pretty. Pretty. Pretty lady.”

Daniel blinked, frowning at Amanda, then looking at the blonde woman sitting right there as if this was—

Ali. This must be Ali.

“I think…” He murmured at his stunned friend. “I think she’s Ali, the girl Johnny talked about with Mr. Miyagi.”

“Ohhhh....” Amanda blinked, like waking up from a deep sleep. “Oh, she’s gorgeous!”

“God, you’re useless when it comes to women…”

She frowned, making a pout as they walked again, this time slowly as they tried to understand what was doing on.

Maybe Amanda was right, maybe this was Johnny’s sister—and then, she looked up and Danile knew right there and then, this was not Johnny’s sister at all.

This was probably Johnny’s girlfriend.

“Hi.” Daniel said, she smiled at him and stood up. “I’m Daniel, and you’re sitting right outside my apartment.”

“Oh!” She jumped to offer her hand, Daniel shook her hand as she smiled bright and sweet. “I’m Ali! I’m Johnny’s friend.” She said, voice soft and sweet, and Amanda was absolutely losing her shit at his side. Daniel bit the inside of his cheek. “Johnny has talked about you, his roommate!”

“Ah,” Daniel couldn’t help but feel a little embarrassed at the thought. What had Johnny told this woman? Had it been now or before, when they didn't like each other? “Hope he didn’t say anything too bad…”

“Oh, no. Nothing but the best!” She assured him. “I’m sorry, I was just—I menaced him with coming, so I was waiting for him.”

“Yeah, I figured that much.” He chuckled, walking closer as she moved aside for him to open the door. “This my friend Amanda, by the way.”

“Hi!” Amanda said, it was too high pitched. Daniel shook his head, but heard them shake hands again. “Amanda Johnson, you can call me Amanda. Or Mandy.”

“Ali.” She said. “With an i.”

“Oh, yeah—Well, Mandy with a y!”

The woman laughed as if what Amanda said wasn’t the dorkiest thing in the world. He smiled, listening to the exchange as he opened the door wide for the two of them. Ali hesitated at first, but came in, looking around with wonder.

What kind of place did Johnny have before he moved in? Ali seemed satisfied, and immediately responded to his hospitality and Amanda’s conversation, for more silly it was. She was nice.

She had presented herself as a friend and Daniel couldn’t help but wonder if it was true, if she was simply a friend and then—from where did she know Johnny? How had they met? She seemed out of a movie, the protagonist of one—of something Nora Ephron would write and direct.

He almost looked around to see if Tom Hanks was about to jump into the scene, make a meet-cute everyone would remember forever and sigh at the thought.

But instead, there was Amanda and Ali talking on his couch as he poured lemonade for everyone, thinking of if his roommate was to make it home earlier today since his friend had passed by now and not later in the night.

“So, how do you know Johnny?” Amanda asked after a while, Daniel gave her a thumbs up as he walked behind Ali towards the bathroom.

He couldn’t give a sip to anything because he immediately needed to pee, and he was not showing just yet. Daniel could only imagine what it will be like in a few months.

As he closed the door, he heard them talk. He could barely make out the words, but Daniel hoped Amanda would tell him later if he couldn't understand at the end.

“We went together to High School.” The blonde woman explained. “Actually…” She sounded a bit awkward, but got through it. “We dated in High School.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, he was my first boyfriend.” She said and Daniel was cleaning his hands, listening carefully. “I was his first girlfriend.”

It sounded almost proud. Daniel swallowed, drying his hands before opening the door and walking out slowly.

“We dated for two years, had a fall out… but eventually, we found each other again and became good friends.” She sighed. “Which is a relief because he was really my best friend while we were dating. I missed that.”

“Yeah, I get it…”

Daniel walked in, both women looked at him with a smile.

“Sorry to interrupt—”

“No, no.” Ali said, moving away on the large couch to let Daniel sit with them. He did, awkwardly, feeling odd at the way they were talking as if Daniel wasn’t actually a stranger in Johnny’s life and didn’t have reason to know these things. “I was telling Amanda about when I dated Johnny, a million years ago in High School.”

“A million? Please, you look younger than me!” Amanda said, Daniel looked at her and slowly shook his head. Why was she always so clumsy at this? “I mean—” He wondered what face Ali was making. “Not like—you’re older than me, right? I mean, you don’t have to look older, I—”

“Mandy.” Daniel said, smiling. “Would you mind getting the lemonade from the kitchen?”

“No, no. I’m going…”

Daniel shook his head, watching as a defeated looking Amanda stood and walked away. Ali must have truly left an impression on her if this was her reaction to just a few minutes of conversation, he couldn’t help but smile as Ali turned to look at him.

“So you’re the famous LaRusso.” She said with a knowing smile.

He blinked. “I guess so.” He cleared his throat. “I’m sorry, I’m just curious about it… but, Johnny always comes home late at night. You know that, right?”

Ali frowned a little, but smiled afterwards.

“I know! But it’s meeting Thursday, so…”

Daniel blinked again, this time the one frowning was him. He moved his head to one side, trying to understand what Ali was saying before Amanda interrupted with the water. The two women sat into conversation again, leaving him with even more questions as he tried to remember what it was about Thursday.

Maybe just another thing he didn’t know about—

“He goes to—?”

Someone was at the door, the three of them looked at it as it opened and a tired-looking Johnny came in with his jacket thrown over his shoulder, his hat in the same hand which he was carrying his suitcase.

He came in and stopped in his tracks at the sight in the living room, blinking a couple of times as if he wanted to conjure it away or was trying to understand what was happening.

“Dammit.” Johnny murmured, looking down before sighing and walking deeper into the apartment, ignoring their visitors and himself.

“Johnny?” Daniel stood up, but before he could do anything else, Ali did the same and jogged to catch up with Johnny to his bedroom’s door.

He looked at Amanda, they could usually communicate by simply looking at each other and this time was no exception. The two stood and peeked their heads into the hallway, looking as the blonde woman was standing in front of Johnny, smiling innocently and he shook his head.

“I told you not to come.” The alpha murmured. “Why you never listen to me?”

“We’ve known each other all our lives, you should be used to it already.” She nodded. “Aren’t you gonna let me in?”

“I have to change.”

She shrugged. “Aren’t you gonna let me in?”

Amanda’s mouth opened at the same time he did and they looked at each other with twin frowns, looking back to watch as both blondes entered the room and the two of them walked back into the living room with more questions that they cared to admit to have.

“Didn’t she say friend? She said she was his friend, right? Did I hear that wrong?” Amanda crossed her arms over her chest. 

“I don’t know…” Daniel blinked. “I mean… no, my mind is blank.”

The beta grimaced, then pouted as she looked back at Daniel.

“I’m sorry your alpha has a girl.”

“Shut up.” Daniel rolled his eyes. “He’s not my alpha, I don’t like him—”

“I’m joking, I’m joking!”

Daniel stepped into the kitchen, ready to spend some money getting something from Uber Eats yet again, but still decent enough to at least pretend and see what he could cook from the fridge. 

The candy was gone. Has Johnny seen Robby this week? He hadn’t seen him come home this early… When could he have seen the child?

He shook his head.

“Sorry your omega has a man.” Daniel told Amanda as she walked in.

She gave him a look and then the middle finger. “Shut up.”

This is why they were meant to be.

* * *

A year and a half ago, Mr. Miyagi started to absent himself every three weeks on Thursdays and Daniel immediately noticed the pattern.

Back then, he had asked his mentor about it and the man had refused to explain, which had struck him as odd since they usually told themselves pretty much everything. So, Daniel’s conclusion had been that it must be something related to his past.

It passed until he accidentally found out what was going on.

He had been following Amanda around while searching for a specific type of shoes she wanted when they entered a boutique in front of a certain building everyone knew was used for mostly help groups meetings.

 _“Oh.”_ Daniel had blinked, watching as a familiar truck parked in front the building and his mentor got out.

He’d been about to get out and say hi when he saw Mr. Miyagi enter the place, and only out of curiosity, he and Amanda had gone in after, asking about the meeting in session: AA meetings.

Daniel had say nothing after, hoping the man would eventually tell him about it, and after a while he let go—until,

_“Johnny always comes home late at night. You know that, right?”_

_“I know! But it’s meeting Thursday, so…”_

His roommate and his mentor knew each other before Johnny moved in, and both of them refused to tell him how they had met, why did the two of them talk as if they knew each other for years?

Daniel couldn’t sleep now. Curiosity was his worst enemy, and now, he couldn’t sleep.

* * *

“You’re having problems sleeping so early on?” Johnny asked one morning.

Daniel looked up from his tea pot, looking at the alpha for long seconds before remembering he was supposed to answer. He opened his mouth to say something, then blinked a couple of times while thinking of what exactly was he gonna say—

“Yes.” He answered after Johnny arched an eyebrow. “God, yes. I don’t even know why.”

“Have you tried sleeping on your side?”

“Yeah, though I’m not a fan. I’ve never been.”

Johnny nodded as he entered the kitchen, opening the fridge to get some eggs out and Daniel sighed, getting his pot back to the table where he’d been drinking tea like there was no tomorrow.

He missed coffee. He missed his expressos.

The other man kept working in the kitchen as Daniel drank, lost in thought and nothingness at some point, basically asleep with his eyes open until a plate with eggs and bacon were put in front of him.

Daniel looked up, Johnny wasn’t looking at him but he could tell there was a blush going up his neck and into his face.

He smiled. “Thanks?”

“Yeah, whatever. Just eat.”

Why couldn’t this man take a compliment, some gratefulness? Daniel wondered how not used to people being nice to him he was, if it had something to do with the things he wasn’t saying and Mr. Miyagi was aware of.

He sighed, and looked at the food with a smile.

At least, he could have this. He knew this of Johnny, that deep down, between all that macho bullshit and old fashioned ways, he was a good guy. 

A _good_ alpha.

* * *

He tried asking Mr. Miyagi again and the man said nothing.

Daniel came back to his apartment empty handed and ready to eat the rest of the candies Johnny had given him almost two weeks ago. Like that, as he ate and read, he didn’t notice the time running and then, the front door opened.

“Holy fuck!” He heard, making him jump on the couch where he’d been reading and eating. “LaRusso!”

He blinked, looking at his roommate standing at the door, face pale and almost sweaty.

“What?”

“Why are you awake?” He said with a deep frown on his face.

Daniel blinked again, looking at his watch—almost two in the morning. He swallowed, looking up at the alpha who was now closing the door and getting the light of the living room on.

He moved to put off the light from the little table he kept besides the couch to read, sighing as Johnny left his jacket, hat and keys on the dinner table with his suitcase near it, then walked towards him with his hands on his waist.

“You still can’t sleep?”

“No, I… I don’t think this kid likes sleeping.”

“Are you feeling her move already?” He frowned. Daniel smiled but shook his head. “I thought so…”

The alpha walked closer, sitting on the small couch near him. Daniel looked at him and wondered what was in his head—Johnny seemed a simple man, nothing too complicated with his love for beer, fast food and action movies. But the truth was that Daniel couldn’t read him, and he was pretty sure that no one actually could.

He didn’t speak of his past, the people he loved with the exception of his son, if he had hobbies or even how work was going. Daniel knew he was a pilot only because Mr. Miyagi had told him while introducing them, only because he was told as Johnny looked around the apartment before moving in.

Johnny sighed, letting his back hit the couch completely as he let his head fall back.

He looked tired.

The way his neck was exposed allowed Daniel to see the spot where his mating gland must be, his eyes glued to it as he wondered if the smell there was as intense as in his room. He was not relaxed, Daniel noticed too—had it been a bad day? What did a pilot’s bad day look like?

“I need to stop flying this much.” Johnny commented, Daniel blinked a couple of times. “I’m way too tired, it’s not even good for my flying.”

“You do work a lot.” Daniel murmured, remembering the sheet Amanda had printed for him--it said pilots had three to four free days a week normally. Why did Johnny only have one? “I hope you’re getting paid fairly at least…”

Johnny’s eyes opened, but he didn’t move. He squeezed the bridge of his nose with two fingers. 

“I do… I think I do.” He swallowed visibly. “But I have a son and his mother is not working yet, we don’t know when…” Johnny looked at Daniel, sitting properly on the couch. “She’s a fly attendant, you know? If the two of us are flying, who’s tending the pup?”

That made sense. So, basically, Johnny was his baby’s mother and his son’s only source of income at the moment.

Complicated.

“So she’s on a sabatic or something?”

“Yeah.” Johnny sighed again. “At least until the kid is old enough to get into daycare…”

Daniel smiled a little at the tone and that face. “You don’t like that idea.”

The alpha looked at him. “I hate it.”

Of course he would. Daniel smiled openly, once again admiring just how much of an old fashioned man his roommate was. But he could understand it—thinking of it, what was he gonna do once his paternity leave was over? His mother lived in another city, asking Mr. Miyagi to take care of his daughter for eight hours or so didn’t seem like a good idea.

Daniel swallowed, frowning as he looked down at the book he had been reading.

“Shit, I made you think of when you will have to leave your pup, isn’t it?”

He looked back at the alpha. They looked at each other for long seconds until Daniel chuckled.

“Yeah, I kind of… thought of that.”

Johnny sighed. “You’ll be fine.” He assured Daniel, though he suspected he just said it to calm him down. 

Daniel frowned. How did Johnny know? Was Daniel that easy to read or--could he smell his mood swings? He knew it was one of the most animalistic parts of their nature, Daniel was very aware that it was also not something everyone could do.

It was even said that only your perfect mate could do it.

He slowly looked at his roommate and saw him checking his old phone, then leaving it on the coffee table.

“You’ve your mom at least…”

“Well, actually...” Daniel licked his lips, Johnny looked at him. “She lives in another city. I believe her capable of moving back to the Valley just for the baby, but—I don’t want to asume.”

Johnny smiled slightly. There was something sad about it. He looked away.

“What about your mom?” Daniel blinked. He had never heard of her, just as… practically everything about Johnny’s life, she was a mystery. “Does she live in the Valley?”

The man looked into nothing for what felt like forever, no expression that could help Daniel know if he planned on answering or not. Johnny looked at him and Daniel regretted having asked. 

Grief in ocean blue eyes didn’t look well.

“She died a year ago.”

Fuck.

Daniel swallowed, feeling his face hot. “I’m so sorry, Johnny. I didn’t know.”

“It’s fine.” He said.

It was not, there was no way it was fine.

Daniel remembered what it had been like to lose his father, and he had been a child back then. That pain—nothing could compare to that. Losing his mother would likely make him lose himself, would feel like a part of him had died with her.

He couldn’t imagine a life without Lucille, without her meeting—

“Oh.” Daniel blinked, Johnny looked back at him again. “Did—did she met—”

“No.”

He looked down again. “I’m sorry.”

This time, Johnny said nothing. 

Daniel looked at him and swallowed, willing himself to speak and put them on even ground again.

“My—” He said, his voice small. The alpha looked back and blinked. “My father passed away when I was a kid.” Daniel said almost in a murmur. “Cancer. It was a long time coming, slowly consumed him… but he died peacefully in his bed.”

The man blinked a couple of times. Without taking his eyes away from Daniel, Johnny let his back hit the couch again, a hand going to the knock of his tie, slowly undoing it until he could take it away.

“She died of cancer, too.” He shared, Daniel started to relax as he watched the man open several buttons of his white uniform shirt. “Became terminal in silence. It was too late when we realized.”

“I’m so sorry…”

“It was hard…” He admitted, looking down. Johnny folded his tie as small as he could, then unfolded it. “I’m not proud of what I did when it happened.” 

Daniel blinked this time, watching Johnny repeat the action with his time two times more before the man looked up at him. They stayed with their eyes locked in the other’s for a couple of seconds, maybe even a minute, until the alpha smiled at him.

“I have an idea.”

He stood up without waiting for Daniel to say anything, walking away and into his room. 

Daniel moved his head to one sided, many questions in mind, many things in the tip of his tongue: What did he meant? What had he done? Was Daniel supposed to ask and lost the chance now? 

Suddenly, he heard Johnny’s room’s door close and steps in the hallway, then the man’s head peeked into their living room.

“Come on, man.”

“What?”

But he had no answer, Johnny left him behind again. 

So, he stood up after marking the page he had read last and leaving the book on the couch to follow Johnny into—his room. Daniel blinked, looking at the alpha standing in front of Daniel’s door with a… pillow under his arm.

“What’s going on?” He asked, slowly walking towards Johnny.

“Shannon, Robby’s mom, she had problems sleeping while pregnant,” He said as a way of explanation, not looking at Daniel, “and Mr. Harmon suggested scenting may help her calm her mind and relax.”

Daniel stopped walking.

“We were still together back then, so all I had to do was…” He looked at Daniel, “you know.” Then away again. “But it would have been enough just with something that already smelled of me. So…”

He was showing him the pillow.

They settled into silence, Daniel’s eyes glued to the pillow in Johnny’s hand, the alpha changing his weight from one feet to the other. 

“I mean, obviously, I’m not your partner—but it worked for her, it worked for Carmen, so maybe it can work with you and help you sleep.”

It was almost three in the morning when Daniel looked up and blinked, watching the way Johnny’s face was blushing, how he could see the red on his cheeks even in the darkness of the hallway. He nodded, slowly walking towards him to open the door.

He could feel Johnny’s warm behind him as he opened, just two seconds of it, and it gave goosebumps to his skin as both walked into the room in silence.

If Johnny had anything to say about his bedroom, maybe the smell of him or the way he was definitely not nesting yet, he didn’t show it on his face. Instead, he put himself into use immediately, moving towards Daniel’s bed as he instructed Daniel to lay down.

“Lay on your side…” Johnny said, Daniel blinked as he did.

As he walked towards it, he remembered the monkey sitting on his bed-side table. He wondered if Johnny had already seen it.

With his back to Johnny, he couldn’t see what the man was doing, but felt his movements as he put a knee on his bed and Daniel’s heart beat faster than ever before—but there were no hands, no touch at all. Just the pillow being pushed against his back, tucked in with him so he was laying on it a little.

He blinked and then—it hit him.

“This, uh…” He could swear he heard Johnny swallow. “This, too.”

The alpha was passing something over his waist, Daniel looked down to find a blanket being put over him. He took it, slowly guiding it up until the smell was closer than before and he sighed, feeling his face hot.

“Thank you.” Daniel murmured after a few seconds in silence. 

“I hope it works…” Johnny said, then he was moving away and Daniel missed his weight on his bed. “Uh, try—try to get some sleep.”

“Yeah.” Daniel blinked, looking as the alpha walked fast towards the door. “Good night, Johnny.”

“Good night, LaRusso.” He said without looking at him.

When the door closed, Daniel moved. 

He moved the covers of his bed away, tucked his pillows as he liked and laid again like Johnny had left him. Except this time, he blatantly put the blanket over him and the pillow against his chest, burying his face on it as it felt even hotter.

The thing about being alone is that nobody will ever know he was doing this anyway.

No one would tell him off about it, and the alpha had voluntarily given these objects to help him sleep. Johnny had wanted to help and Daniel had accepted it, so—he moved again, hugging the pillow with a leg over it. 

Johnny’s smell was peculiar to him, in a good way.

He often smelled of oil and detergent, but beyond that, he could smell wood and evergreen in a way that reminded him of katas in Okinawa, the woods where Mr. Miyagi taught him balance, camping with his father, having adventures with Jessica when they were younger.

It felt like something that had always been with him somehow and it was now in one single person that made him feel… weird.

Did he like Johnny? He had spent the last three or four months convinced he didn’t.

But now he was hugging a pillow that smelled of him, a leg over it like a clingy little shit he swore to never be. He had to admit the man was kind. Even with his brutish ways, he was—

He was alright.

* * *

Daniel had never slept this good in his life.

At some point, he offered the blanket and pillow back, but Johnny had looked at him for a few seconds then shook his head.

“Did you get to sleep?”

“Yeah…”

“Then keep it.”

And that was it.

Nobody talked about it again, and Daniel had to admit that he wasn’t looking forward to giving it back anyway.

* * *

“Something’s happening to you…”

Daniel looked at his friend, Amanda moved her head to one side, ignoring her club sandwich as they sat together eating. He swallowed and put his attention back to his omelette.

“I’m pregnant,” Daniel reminded her, “a lot is happening to me right now.”

She chuckled, shaking her head. “No, it’s something else.”

_Nosy omega._

Daniel swallowed, looking away as he tried not to think about last night and the alpha in his house, the tone of his voice as he smirked and looked up from the beer he had been nursing, the way the word ‘omega’ rolled in his tongue.

“You’re doing it again, you know?” Amanda signaled. “That face of when something is bothering you, even when it’s something good.”

“What?” He said, way too loudly. Thankfully they were just in Amanda’s office, but Jesus—”No. Nothing good, okay? Just…”

After a while, she said: “Come on, you know you can tell me. What’s wrong?” He shook his head no. “Is it Johnny again?”

Daniel’s eyes snapped up, looking at her with a frown. She smiled as if it was a victory.

“It _is_ Johnny!” She pretty much celebrated. 

“Shut up, it’s not a good thing.”

Her face morphed from amusement to preoccupation in a heartbeat and Daniel felt wrong again, shaking his head as he looked away. He could feel his friend’s worrisome in the air as he tried to eat again.

“Did he do something to you?” She asked. Daniel thought of it, then shook his head. Amanda put a hand on his wrist. “Daniel, it’s okay. You can tell me.”

What was there to say?

He had stayed awake to wait for Johnny and ask him to scent his pillow again. He had stumbled on his own words and admissions, face an angry red that made the alpha laugh once he realized what Daniel wanted, and he hadn’t hesitated to do so.

After the man came out his bedroom with the now scented pillow, Daniel had simply sat down to watch him eat and talk about his day. 

It had felt normal, good even. And Johnny didn’t seem to mind it as well, no signs of unconformity shown as Daniel asked for his day and all.

 _“The other day…”_ He had started, wanting to finally have some answers to questions he was aware he shouldn’t have anyway. _“The girl that came by.”_

 _“Mhm. Ali.”_ Johnny said, finishing his drink before standing up to the kitchen. _“What about her?”_

Daniel blinked, thinking better of it… but he wanted to know. He really did.

 _“Is she your girlfriend?”_ He had asked. _“I mean_ — _”_ He heard the man moving in the kitchen, opening and closing the fridge’s door, walking out and into the dining room with curiosity in his eyes. _“She told me_ — _she told us, Amanda was here too_ — _”_

_“Yeah?”_

_“She told us you guys dated in High School, but…”_

_“But?”_

Daniel licked his lips, looking down at his feet then up at Johnny.

The man was leaning on the wall with an arm supported by the breakfast’s island that let him look into the kitchen from the dining area. He moves his head to one side, taking a sip of his beer—and the sight of it made his stomach knot for some reason he couldn’t explain.

 _“Uh_ — _you guys seemed so in sync. I was wondering if you guys are together?”_

Johnny kept his eyes on him as he drank, drags of alcohol longer each time, making Daniel frown as he realized he had drank at least half the bottle right away.

He swallowed.

_“Why you wanna know, LaRusso?”_

_“I_ — _”_ He cleared his throat. He had no excuses. So, Daniel just shook his head. _“Nothing at all. Sorry I asked, I_ — _”_ He stood up, readying himself to run into his room and sleep. _“Sorry_ — _”_

Johnny smirked around the bottle’s mouth, making Daniel’s face burn before he spoke quietly and ever so slowly:

_“Nosy omega.”_

It felt like cold water had been thrown on him, soaking him completely as he was waking up.

His stomach knotted, legs shaking as his mouth opened and tried to say something—things. He wanted to say things, but he had no idea of what and why. His face burned, chest contracting as the word eachod in his head endlessly:

_Omega, omega, omega, omega omega…_

_Nosy omega._

But in the two seconds where all this happened, something else was happening to Johnny.

He stood stiff, looking surprised with himself, horrified even—he left the beer on the breakfast’s island counter as if it burned, looking away with tension making his shoulders and back look heavy.

 _No_ . Daniel wanted to say _no, no, it’s okay._

But was it? Was it okay?

Amanda looked at him with a frown as he told her everything, the way he had felt and what had happened after. How Johnny had apologized so many times, Daniel’s head started to hurt with the noise they were doing, one trying to silence the other, trying to make things right--

 _“Fuck, I’m so sorry_ — _”_ Johnny said. _“SHIT, I’m_ — _I’m just gonna_ — _”_ He signaled the hallway, his room.

Daniel shook his head but ended up saying, _“Okay. It’s fine, it’s_ — _”_

 _“No, I’m so sorry.”_ Johnny passed a hand over his face and hair. _“Fuck, LaRusso.”_

And like that, he was gone, leaving Daniel in the quiet of the dining room, the semi-darkness of their apartment, the emptiness he felt as he sat there and then slowly stood up to walk into his room with his recently scented pillow, alone.

“It’s…” Daniel said now to Amanda, whose frown was deeper than before. “I don’t know how to better explain it to you, but this was the first time an alpha ever called me that…”

“But it’s your assignation. What’s the big deal?”

“It’s…” He cleared his throat. “Uh, well. Have you heard of the alpha voice and all that?"

Her eyes opened wide, offended immediately. "Did he use his—"

"God, no!" Daniel corrected things. "No, it's just that—well, what happens has something to do with that. It's similar."

Amanda didn't seem convinced, but Daniel sighed and kept going, hoping he could explain himself better and less messy as his head felt.

"Sometimes, when someone of the opposite assignations calls you yours, it can have certain effects. So it's a courtesy to never do it."

"Oh, okay. I see…" Amanda bit her bottom lip. "So you… felt something?"

Daniel blinked, genuinely thinking about it and how he had felt the first seconds it happened—only now he remembered, he had even gasped.

"That's the problem." Daniel admitted. "I… liked it."

"Oh?"

"But not…" He swallowed, feeling his face red. "Not in a sexual way."

"What do you mean?"

That night, Daniel had laid down wide awake and aware of how alone he was.

He had told himself he wasn't. He had Mr. Miyagi and the guys, his mother. But—there he was, alone in his giant bed, alone in the darkness with someone else's pillow, feeling cozy because that person had called him his assignation.

"It's pathetic." Daniel murmured. "Johnny is the closest thing I have to someone, like—a partner, caring for me." He admitted. "Because he's not my friend, he's not family… he's just this guy that—helps out omegas who—" He swallowed, willing himself not to cry.

Why was he feeling like this? It was ridiculous.

"He just likes helping omegas who are alone…"

"Oh, Daniel."

He heard Amanda stand up and walk to him, hugging him as he sat with his face on her shoulder. 

Daniel didn't cry though he felt like it. He hugged Amanda back and felt her love wash over him like a warm shower after a long day.

By the time they separated and finished their lunch, his mind was made. He called the number in the pamphlet given by Dr. Harmon and asked for an appointment to find a match.

Amanda smiled at him after, and Daniel took a deep breath.

Nothing wrong in asking for help.

* * *

Turns out, the matching system was easier than he thought and not as expensive as he had nightmares about.

Daniel had sat down with Jeny, as the second Dr. Harmon had asked him to call her, and talked about how he was feeling since he found out about the pregnancy and the hard part of it being the result of a one-night-stand.

Venting to her felt relaxing, what with her velvet voice and kind green eyes. Jeny had smiled at him, sharing some of her own pregnancy experiences, then explained how the project was born.

It was a lost practice for the 70s and it was therapeutic to alphas as well, since the ones put in the lists were those whose parental instincts had no way out since their pups were now adults or had been separated.

A lot of the alphas were single parents who didn't have their pup close to them. A large proportion were also alphas going out the grieving process after losing their pups.

How had Johnny made it to the list?

The image of him holding Robby close, lips lingering on his forehead at the mini-mall came to mind as he wondered of it in Jeny's office and now home.

Daniel blinked, looking at the screen of his computer. He shook his head, trying to keep away every thought of the alpha.

"Shit…" He murmured, willing himself to put attention to the list of candidates he was looking at.

They hadn't had a real conversation in days after what happened—but the man kept leaving breakfast for Daniel, kept it polite between them as the days went by.

Now… Daniel needed to choose an alpha to meet and see if they could work together, but all there was in his head was how right Amanda was: Johnny lived here, knew him, already did things for him—knew what he would be doing.

Daniel bit his bottom lip, trying to talk himself out of it when yelling in the hallway made him look at his door.

"Daniel-san!", "Mr. LaRusso!" He heard at the same time and Daniek frowned.

He stood up, someone was knocking—no, hitting his door. Daniel ran to open it and was greeted by a nervous but happy looking Rosa Diaz and an incredibly stressed Mr. Miyagi.

"What—what's going on?"

"¡Carmen ya va a dar a luz!"

"Carmen-san is in labor, we need car."

"Oh!" His heart jumped in his chest. "Oh my God, is she in the apartment?"

"No, no. Already at hospital. Johnny-san is taking her. We need car for Rosa-san!"

"Oh!" Daniel felt his legs react faster than his thoughts. "Yes, of course, let's go!"

As the day drastically changed, Daniel ran into his room for the keys of his car and then back to his front door, leaving his computer on and open in the table, the light of the kitchen on, his tea getting cold.

He drove like a responsible mad man, yelling more to the people with him in the car to shut up and stop pressuring him into disobeying transit law than to anyone on the street.

And all the while, the only thing in his head was—how was it like? He knew it was painful, his mother said earlier that month that it was a wonderful kind of painful, a pain that is worth the effort.

Daniel wondered if Carmen didn't feel alone as her mother was yet to come and her baby's father was nowhere to be seen. Had Johnny gone with her? Did he get some sort of permission from the clinic? Had they lied and said he was the father?

For a second as he let Rosa and Mr. Miyagi get out the car in the entrance, Daniel imagined what his labor would be like and who would be there.

As he parked, he thought of the pain and how much he wanted his mother and Mr. Miyagi at his side, how good it would be to see Amanda's and Anoush's faces, if Jessica would come just for this.

If Carmen and Rosa, and little Miguel would come too. If Johnny would.

Daniel stepped into the hospital with that idea again in his head—that he could simply ask Johnny to be that for him as he was for Carmen.

He knew the man had only been there for the mast trimester and for him, he would be the entire pregnancy, but—would he do it? 

Maternity was a busy place.

Daniel looked around until he found Mr. Miyagi and Rosa impatiently standing near a door. He jogged to them, wondering if Johnny was really inside with Carmen—

Wondering if he would say yes to him.

* * *

Miguel Fernando Diaz was born May 20 at 6:38 PM.

He was red faced, adorably chubby and wide eyed as Daniel stood near the window where they were shown the baby as the mother was moved into her room to rest.

The baby was wide awake, something not so common according to the books he had been reading, but Rosa counted twenty fingers and approved of a good bunch of fair black hair on top of the little head, and was satisfied when told her first grandchild had come to the world healthy and strong.

Daniel watched as the woman was told she could come into the room now, and then followed Mr. Miyagi to the waiting area where they could sit and get ready for their turn to come in, when he saw Johnny come out the room.

Their eyes met for a long seconds, frozen where they stood until a familiar voice made Daniel snap out of it.

"Lawrence!" A woman called, making Johnny and Daniel look at her. "There you are! How is she?"

Johnny closed the distance between him and Ali, hugging her when she rounded his neck with her arms and—God, she was tiny in front of him. A perfect little omega.

He looked down at his too long legs, too tall to be an omega but too short to be a beta—he'd been told a million times he didn't look his assignation. And he'd always played it cool, at the end of the day gender and assignations were things that didn't define him… but there was a point in which it hurt, too.

It was a tired kind of hurt, a ridiculous kind of hurt, a dysphoric kind of hurt.

Johnny stood there with his friend and before Daniel turned back to Mr. Miyagi, he realized Ali was wearing a white coat—she was a doctor here? Were all of Johnny's friends doctors?

He sat down at his mentor's side and distracted himself with his phone until the man tapped at his shoulder.

"You're upset." He simply said. Daniel blinked a couple of times, thinking of what to say. "Is it pup's father?"

"God, no." He shook his head. "Though I admit I've been thinking of him and how can I find him, but—"

"Is it Johnny-san?"

Daniel closed his mouth with a click, then immediately shook his head.

“Why do all of you keep asking about him?” He laughed. “No, it’s not—”

“It is Johnny-san.” Mr. Miyagi said, nodding. Daniel sighed, giving up. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing is wrong.” He repeated. “I’ve been just thinking about the matching program because I—I haven’t been feeling as good as I expected.” He admitted. “I guess…” Daniel gestured, Mr. Miyagi followed his hands. “I guess at some point I thought of asking Johnny if he could help me out, but it went nowhere.”

The man nodded, looking away then back at Daniel. “Why?”

He blinked a couple of times, thinking about it and how the whole situation had made him feel. And what was he truly feeling? He was—he was jealous, it was it.

Daniel licked his lips and grimaced.

“I don’t know… but I think it may not be a good idea to get involved so intimately with someone I live with.” He suggested, it actually clicked in his head that yeah—they lived together. Once Daniel’s daughter was born, Johnny would still be there. 

It could complicate things.

“But you like Johnny-san.”

“I don’t—” Daniel’s shoulders tensed and he looked at his mentor right away. “I don’t! Where did that come from?”

The man frowned, moving his head to one side slightly as he observed something on Daniel’s face and oh God, what the hell was happening right now? He swallowed, opening his mouth to speak again when Mr. Miyagi shook his head.

“Daniel-san, heart and brain are to be used.”

“What?”

Again, he didn't get an answer.

Daniel waited a couple of seconds more, then turned fully on his seat to look at his mentor, ready to ask what he meant when someone stood in front of them.

"Mr. Miyagi!" Ali said, making Daniel frown. "How have you been?"

The man stood, hugging her warmly. Daniel stood up too, looking as another person stood near him. His eyes met with Johnny's, making him swallow as he looked back at the other two.

"I was telling Johnny I cheat a little, so you can come into the room and meet little Miguel if you want."

"That would be great, Ali-san."

She smiled wide, looking at Daniel before greeting him too. Ali hugged him as if they knew each other forever, and it all made him feel like an asshole since he'd been… jealous of her.

"Come on, let's go!"

Uh.

Daniel blinked, watching as Mr. Miyagi and Ali walked towards the room. Johnny stood at his side, taking a deep breath.

"Are you okay?"

He blinked, looking at the man. "Yeah…"

Johnny wasn't even looking at him but he nodded.

"Alright. Let's go."

“Johnny?”

The man turned to look at him, Daniel braced himself and decided it was now or never—the worst that could happen was for his roommate to say no, and there was still a long list of possible matches that could help him out.

Daniel swallowed, attempting a small smile to the alpha in front of him.

“I was—” 

Johnny looked around his face. If he was looking for something there, he didn’t show if he had found it and liked what he saw. But Daniel’s hear was about to burst out his chest and his legs shivered as he tried again—

“It’s just that since you’ve been spending more time in the apartment, I wanted to let you know I may bring someone next weekend.” He said instead, like an idiot. “I mean, nothing too serious, just…”

The alpha frowned, looking away before turning his back to Daniel.

“I get it.”

There was something in his voice, some sort of anger and—something else. 

Daniel stood there for a few seconds, knowing the man hadn’t waited for him this time, suspecting tomorrow there was not gonna be any breakfast for him. He could almost hear Amanda’s voice in his head calling him an idiot, how could he be so damn stupid?

But if Johnny had said no, Daniel wasn’t ready for what he may have felt after hearing that tiny word.

This was better.

* * *

(11:21 AM) _To my defense, it never occurred to me that it would make things awkward. It’s not as if he knew WHAT I was gonna ask him originally, so…_

Daniel sighed, looking at his phone as they went up the elevator.

He and Mr. Miyagi had driven back to the hospital to pick up Carmen, little Miguel and Rosa as they had asked, since Johnny had work to do and wouldn’t be home until late at night as usual. But to their surprise, the man had showed up anyway and now, their party was back home in all its awkwardness.

At least for him and Johnny, who didn’t speak to him again after last night.

(11:22 AM) _Well, to MY defense, I just think you’re more of a moron than I thought._

_I’ve lost respect for you, LaRusso._

_Also??? Lying about having a date????? Come on, man..._

Daniel frowned at Amanda’s text, almost wanting to cry after all the tension he’s been in since it all happened. 

(11:22 AM) _May I remind you it was YOUR idea to ask Johnny to be my match?_

(11:23 AM) _In my defense, I thought you wouldn’t be asking Johnny to be your match at the end_

_Or tell him you may bring an imaginary person back home ON THE FIRST IMAGINARY DATE, YOU LYING SLUT_

He shook his head. 

Daniel would argue Johnny didn’t know it was the first date, or that he wasn’t actually planning to and had only said that to escape the awkwardness of the moment once he decided last minute he was not asking Johnny for his help.

It was a good idea, he had told himself as he texted Amanda as well after explained what had happened. Because yes, Johnny lived with him. So once his daughter was born, he would still be around, his baby could even think this was her other father—it could complicate it all.

_I always wanted a daughter._

They were better off as just roommates who occasionally talked, even if today he had missed breakfast as Johnny had stopped making it for him. At least it looked like that for today.

Sighing, he took the stuffed animals Miguel was given by Carmen's co-workers and friends, which was the only thing he was allowed to carry, and walked with the others towards the women’s apartment.

Today had turned out to be a drag so far, except when Miguel had looked at him and took his finger sweetly when Carmen let him carry him. Because, oh God—just the smell of the new diapers as Rosa put them in the baby bag, it had made him shiver and wish his baby was already here.

Were these his hormones? Could he have baby fever while pregnant?

Johnny stood in front of the door and opened it for Carmen, who immediately thanked him before they were invited in, Rosa and Mr. Miyagi animatedly talked about what they would get for dinner tonight since they were celebrating.

“Are you coming too, Mr. Daniel?” Rosa asked with a smile as Daniel left Miguel’s toys on the table as Carmen had indicated him. 

He saw her walk deeper into the apartment, followed by Johnny who had the carrier and baby bag with him. 

“I would love to!” He answered with a smile, his phone vibrated on his pocket.

Mr. Miyagi and Rosa went back into conversation as both entered the kitchen, helping each other to make tea and coffee for Johnny and herself. Daniel took a seat on their couch and looked at his phone with a frown at Amanda’s words.

(11:29 AM) _Listen, what’s done it’s done_

_I guess you are now on the look for a match again?_

He sighed, nodding before answering.

(11:30 AM) _I guess I am..._

Voices came from the rooms, Carmen’s laugh suddenly filling the place. Daniel looked up to find her come into view with Johnny’s hands slightly on her waist from behind. She turned to look at the alpha with a smile, the height difference between them looking incredibly adorable.

He hated it.

Because, again—Carmen deserved better.

“Thank you for coming.” She murmured, but Daniel was close enough to hear it all. Unfortunately. “It really means a lot to me and it will mean a lot to Miguel.”

“Don’t say that.” Johnny answered somehow charming yet awkwardly, his hands on Carmen’s waist. “Kid’s gonna be alright with his mommy, he won’t need anybody else.”

She shook her head. “I know it makes you feel things you don’t want to deal with, but you already mean something to him.” She sighed, looking up at him with a soft smile, eyes shining lovingly. “And that’s a good thing. You’re a good thing in our lives.” Carmen said.

Daniel blinked a couple of times, hear raising in his chest. He needed to get out of there.

“You’re a good man.”

Johnny was looking down and away in that same way he always did when Daniel complimented him. He truly couldn’t take anybody saying honest and good things about him, almost as if he thought he didn’t deserve them.

_I’m not proud of what I did when it happened._

He blinked a couple of times.

“You’ll come to see Miguel? Have dinner with us on Thursdays?”

The alpha nodded. Another Thursday mystery. Was this what Ali was referring to? No, dinner is not a meeting.

Daniel looked back at his phone.

He needed to start minding his own.

* * *

As it turned out, he could not mind his own when it came to Johnny carrying Robby.

He saw them come out Johnny’s challenger as Daniel was also leaving his car, watched the man carry his son to the lobby’s entrance where Carmen and Miguel were waiting for them. 

Blinking, Daniel saw them enter. He practically ran to catch up with them, wanting to see the little boy in spite of knowing he’ll do it once he made it home.

“Damiel!”

He froze at the sound of Robby’s voice.

Johnny looked back, blinking as he saw Daniel standing there with wide open eyes. Because it hadn’t been his name just yet, but it was coming—Robby had called him, somehow recognized him and it felt—it was such a sweet little thing.

“Hi!” Daniel smiled at the kid. “I haven’t seen you in a while!”

“Damiel!” He said again, extending his arms. Johnny bounced him a little and the kid looked at him. “Papa!”

“Oh, that’s a new one.” Daniel murmured, Johnny looked at him with a tiny smile and nodded. “You’re learning new words?”

The kid giggled, hiding his face on his father’s neck and making Daniel smile. Just like that, there was no tension between them when he looked at Johnny again, and this time they walked together towards the elevator with Carmen.

“How is the tiny one doing?” Daniel asked her as she stood at his left with her son, Johnny at his right with his. “God, he’s just so adorable!”

“He’s actually an angel.” Carmen said. “He’s let me sleep so far.”

“Ha, wait until he gets used to being around. You won’t be sleeping soon.” Johnny assured her, the woman made a face and Daniel smiled.

“Well, so far we’re still enjoying some cryless nights.”

Daniel smiled at her. The kid was wide awake, looking around with curious eyes as if this was the first time he was in the elevator. Miguel had such wonder in his eyes as he looked across from them to Robby, who was making some sort of secret conversation with his father.

Only then did Daniel notice the man was wearing his uniform, jacket included with the hat nowhere to be seen. Johnny had Robby’s baby bag on his shoulder, his suitcase standing at his side, the kid smiling at him as they made faces to each other.

It was adorable.

“That’s our stop!” Carmen announced as the doors opened. “See you, Daniel!” And he waved at her and little Miguel. “See you two later?”

“Yeah.” Johnny nodded, then looked at Robby. “Say bye to Carmen and Miguel, pup. Come on…”

“Bye!” He said, waving. “Bye, baby!”

The three of them laughed--and Daniel knew it wasn’t such a big deal, but there was something so sweet in the way Robby would wave at everyone and say, hi and bye. There's just something sweet about Robby Lawrence.

“To all this,” Daniel started now that they were alone, “how old is he?”

“Fifteen months.” Johnny answered right away as he’s been asked this a million times. Daniel looked at him. “I mean—one year, three months.”

Daniel smiled, watching as Robby remained hidden in the space between Johnny’s neck and shoulder, sucking on his own finger before slowly moving his little hand to grab at Johnny’s lapel.

The kid played with it a few seconds, then slowly put the tip on his mouth, sucking at it.

“Oh, he’s—”

“I know.” Johnny murmured. He was smiling. “I know…”

Daniel looked at them for the next few seconds before the door opened, watching as Johnny closed his eyes and leaned on his kid’s little head. 

The elevator stopped, but none of them moved.

“So,” Daniel started. “I—I talked to Dr. Harmon… I mean, Jeny.” 

Johnny looked at him as the door opened.

“I asked her about the matching program and she gave me an interview, you know? We started the process for the matching.”

“Yeah?” Johnny said as the door closed.

“Yes.” Daniel swallowed. “She, ah—she’s your friend’s wife, right?”

Johnny nodded. “Yeah, they—Jimmy and I have been friends since we were kids.” He sighed. “We had this… little group, we’re all still friends.” He said, looking away. Robby kept sucking on his uniform. “Helped me a lot this last year…”

“Yeah?” The door opened again. “Was it so bad?”

Johnny looked at him, only watched him for a few seconds as the door remained open then nodded.

“So you’re getting a match?”

Daniel blinked, then nodded. 

“Actually,” he said.

The door opened again.

“I was thinking…” He swallowed, Johnny had his full attention on him. “I was wondering… if you could help me out?”

The alpha looked at him for several seconds. He passed his other arms under his son, holding him with both arms now as his eyes remained on Daniel and Daniel only.

The door was still wide open, and he knew it would close in a few seconds.

Daniel swallowed.

“I mean, that—if you could be my match?”

Johnny looked away, taking a deep breath.

Then back at him as the door closed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> DON'T KILL ME.


	3. the pilot's half bottle

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Reveals and deals are made.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this is a bit late, I struggled with a few scenes in this chapter since they were important for the tone of the fic and the rest of the story going forward. I hope you enjoy it!

"The worst part is missing it." Morales said. 

"It's… not even wanting the drink, just how it made me feel. Or not feel at all." He continued, looking at the group. 

"It's been harder lately. I haven't even seen my friends lately because most reunions involve alcohol, and I don't want to ruin the party for them… I miss having fun."

A few nodded, others shook their heads as Patrick took work and started to talk again about effort and self-control, how it's not about just stop drinking but wanting to, all that jazz of every meeting Thursday.

Johnny looked around with crossed arms, keeping to himself for the time being until he found Mr. Mills biting his nails on the other side of the circle.

He could tell the man was nervous, probably dreading being asked to talk. 

Johnny would feel sorry for the old man if it wasn't for the stress his step back had caused Ali, how she had cried  _ just _ in front of him.

This was who they were, all of them.

Struggles and disappointed loved ones.

He sighed, closing his eyes as he thought of home and the smell of gardenias.

**You're My Nomad And I Love You Sideways**

**Chapter III**

**The Pilot's Half Bottle**

Johnny looked down at his phone, at Jen writing something about appointments both knew he wasn’t to attend, and sighed before looking out the window of his cab.

Nightlife in Atlanta moved among the traffic and the rain, nothing stopping the young to party with each other and forget every obligation they ever had. And not for the first time, Johnny wished he was still like that, that he had never listened to Bobby and Ali, and maybe tonight he would be—

Did it matter? His eyes opened, the cab drove past the green light and he sighed, recognizing the now familiar places as they made it to the hotel.

“We’re here, Cap!” The driver said, somehow excited to be driving a pilot to a hotel. “For how long are you staying in our city?”

Johnny paid as he blinked. “Just tonight, kid.” He answered. “I’m parting on the first flight tomorrow morning, 7:15 AM.”

“Awesome!” The young man said. “I’ll pick you up! What hour would you need me to be here, Cap?”

Johnny arched an eyebrow. “Kid, I need to be there extra early…”

“It’s no problem!” 

“Alright, then at five thirty.”

“Five thirty will be!”

Johnny shook his head as he took his shit and walked out the car, saluting the man as he drove away from the entrance and a bell boy took his suitcase, making conversation with him as they walked into the hotel.

He wondered if Shannon was still awake, how her aunt was doing, had Robby eaten okay today? Said a new word already? 

He blinked, getting his key-card and walking to the elevator, hoping Carmen had found some peace today as Rosa had cooked her favorite meal, according to her texts, and that they had gotten Miguel to stop crying.

The bed looked good, but all there was in Johnny’s head was if his roommate had eaten and not skipped meals as he was always doing, if he was asleep or being the little insomniac pain in the ass he was.

Daniel was pregnant. He should be taking better care of himself—skipping meals, drinking as much coffee as he often did, sleeping so little, stressing as much, none of that could ever be good for his pup.

He blinked a couple of times, looking down at his phone, finger just a movement away from calling.

Johnny sighed, throwing the phone on the bed and giving his back to it.

Tonight, if he remembered correctly, Daniel had gone out on a date.

And it was none of his business.

* * *

Johnny had a very defined routine, which helped his hands and moving thoughts.

He woke up at five to work out, have breakfast, shower and get dressed for work. Lately, he even made breakfast for his roommate and sometimes had some small awkward talk with him, then he was gone to the airport.

Flying was easy, the worst part of learning it had already happened—Aeronautics school had been the most stressful time of his life, and for a moment, Johnny thought he wouldn’t make it… to this day, he still wondered if Sid had a say in him passing the exam to get it, in the one to have his licence.

But it was easy to fly.

Flying felt like time stood still and became quiet.

It gave him the space he needed to breathe, just breathe, and organize his ideas better.

There in the air, great cities looked small. Colors blended into nature, the sky cleared in front of him even if clouds drowned it for the day, even if it rained and snowed.

Usually, he flew three to four cities a day, at least two in and out, stayed in hotels for at least two nights a week, but he never left the country.

Leaving meant less time with Robby, meant that if there was an emergency, he couldn’t simply jump into his car or the closest plane to get to Shannon. And while flying continental had been a dream back when the two of them were dating, getting to know all those romantic cities from her movies, it was better this way.

One day, once his pup was older, maybe both could fly like that again.

“Good morning, Captain!” Jackie greeted him as he and Daryl walked into the cockpit. “It’s a great day for San Francisco!”

“It’s always a great day for San Francisco!” Daryl answered as he winked at her. “Who else is flying with us today?”

“Greta and Lydia.” Johnny answered for her. “Man, read the damn schedule some time.”

The guy laughed, taking off his jacket and giving it to Jackie alongside his hat. Johnny watched her leave them neat and tidy on its holder, then turning to wait for his things. He smiled at her, still in love with the uniform and the way each fly attendant always looked pretty, all dolled up.

When he was a kid, he remembered always wanted to be a pilot because the fly attendants were so pretty.

His mother often laughed at it, but the day Johnny told her his plans for college, she had genuinely smiled and done everything in her power to help him. And though, he hated to admit it, her influence over Sid had been good enough to help him get by at the time.

Somehow, he was now here, living his childhood dreams and it was all thanks to his mother.

“Any idea of where we’ll have breakfast today?” Daryl asked him after Johnny sat down and started to put everything in place to get the plane going. “Johnny?”

“I already eat.” He answered, looking at his usual co-pilot. “You really need to start getting your ass early, man.”

“Tsk.” The man complained, doing his part anyway. “You only wake up early because you have a pup in the house…”

Johnny looked at him, debating on letting him know he was wrong or not. 

Revealing more of his personal life to his co-workers wasn’t something he was looking forward to. The one time he did so, he ended up getting that person pregnant, and the worst of him had manifested to ruin everything for the two of them.

He shook his head and sat back on his chair, sighing deeply as he looked up at the clear sky.

“We got good weather today…” He murmured, thinking of his squetctual.

“Ten minutes before passengers enter!” He heard Greta announce from the attendants cabin. 

Johnny nodded to himself.

“How’s your son, by the way?”

“Running.” Johnny answered as he told everyone, somehow proud. “Shannon finally decided to get him the test, I don’t know why…”

Daryl chuckled, shaking his head. 

“My ol’ lady did the same with our oldest. She first said no at the hospital and then, months later, she was running into the pediatrician's office asking if they could get it.” He sighed dreamily. “It’s good, though. It helped us prepare for when they presented as teens.”

He smiled, knowing Shannon’s curiosity was, generally, harmless and cute in a way.

Knowing what his son will grow up to present as had been something she decided by herself, something he shouldn’t be even allowed to know after what he put her through all alone. But she had called, had told him he could go with her to get the results.

As they sat outside Ali’s office, waiting for her to guide them through the process, he had wondered what it would be of them had things gone better. Would they be together today? Did he even want that?

Johnny blinked a couple of times, the smell of flowers and other greeneries coming all together with the sound of laughter in the middle of the night. 

Evergreen, gardenias, candy sweet eyes, coffee caramel brown. 

“You guys got the result?”

“Yeah.” He cleared his throat, taking the speaker to make sure it was running effectively. “Yes.” He said into the speaker. “1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Yes, yes. 1, 2, 3… Yes.”

“All good!” Jackie let him know. 

Johnny put on his sunglasses and sighed, ready for the first flight.

“He’s gonna be an omega.” He told his co-pilot after a while, at the same time Greta announced they were opening the gates. 

“I pity the fool that dares look at him in the future.”

Johnny looked at Daryl with a smirk, shaking his head before they both laughed. 

God knows how he may be in the future with his son all grown up. He couldn’t even imagine that, what he would do when he learned to truly talk and asked things, what he would do with a walking, talking, little curious Robby Keene Lawrence in his life.

The idea of his son dating felt so far away, Johnny left it there and hoped he wouldn’t be the kind of father their kids are afraid of telling them things, like who they may like, who they want to introduce to them.

He cleared his throat after, when the girls let him know all was ready and everyone was on their seats, waiting for him to welcome them.

“Good morning, ladies and gentleman, this is your captain John Lawrence speaking, flying today to San Francisco in the flight number 218 at 7:15 AM, with co-pilot, Daryl Jacobs.” He said into the speaker, making a small pause to glare at Daryl who was giggling at his side. “We have a clear blue sky and a flight of one hour and 25 minutes duration. It's 7:17 AM, please be welcome, listen to our flight attendants and enjoy your flight.”

Daryl laughed at his side, mocking the way he changed the tone of his voice to talk to the passengers. Johnny rolled his eyes as he prepared to take off, thinking of years ago, when he would indulge Shannon and use his "captain voice" to make her laugh.

She laughed loudly as he spoke into the camera later that day, instructing him to move the stupid phone up but not too up, then not too low, until they were face to face and she was aaking him to not move while she took Robby.

The boy appeared on screen, looking annoyed until he recognized him and gasped loudly, making Shannon laugh again.

"Dada!"

"Hey, pup!"

"DADA!" He said even more excited.

He talked to him through Shannon and their interpretations of his sounds and words, laughing every time the kid tried to touch the screen or moved something, changing the settings thingy Shannon had explained to him twice.

Soon it was just them, making awkward conversation, ignoring the elephant in the room.

"So, Ali told me you were thinking of keeping the match thing going."

Johnny closed his eyes, cursing his luck. 

"Jesus Christ, that woman…" He sighed. "No, not at all. Someone asked me to be their match, I said I would think about it."

She blinked a couple of times, their kid sitting between her legs as she hugged him and let him play with his cubes.

"And? Are you thinking of it?"

Johnny arched an eyebrow. "I'm thinking of how tired I am right now and how I have a flight to Orlando in less than an hour."

"That's not an answer, Johnny…"

He sighed, shaking his head. "I don't know."

Shannon looked at him for a few seconds, then smiled a little.

"Look, I'm sorry I reacted so bad about the other girl." She said. "But you didn't have any tackt telling me, so I was angry by the end of it."

"Shannon—"

"I get it, okay?" She swallowed visibly. "I was alone by the end of my pregnancy and even now, I get watery eyes just thinking of it."

"Fuck…"

"I was an emotional and hormonal mess by the end of it." She continued. "I can't—I can't explain what it was. But I felt rejected and—"

"Shannon, no. The kid's there—"

"No, yes. We have to talk about it, Johnny!" She frowned. "You weren't there and there's consequences to that. What we had can't be saved but at least we could be good parents to our kid."

His arm hurt where he was holding the damn phone up. He wanted to tell her that and hung up, get ready for his next flight.

But Shannon kept talking, telling him what rejection felt like in an unmated pregnant omega like she was when Johnny failed her.

"I think what hurt me the most was that you pushed me away when I wanted to help you." She licked her lips. "I lost Laura, too."

She'd been so excited to become a grandmother, Johnny still remembered her sitting on their couch with Shannon at her side, talking about the pup to come.

"You didn't let me take care of you," she murmured, looking away, "and on top of that, you didn't take care of me. Didn't even show up to welcome our pup…"

"I'm sorry." He said again as he always did when it was brought up. "I'm so sorry."

She swallowed again. "I was alone in a dark place, having to take care of a newborn with no support at all." Shannon reminded him. "So I'm sorry I felt a little angry when you told me you were doing it for someone else that you aren't even dating…"

"Shannon, I'm sorry." He said. 

Robby looked up at the screen in that moment. They stopped talking, looking at the kid as he showed a red cube to Shannon as he giggled. 

He had no idea of what was happening, the things they've done to each other. And one day, he'll ask why Johnny is not in the pictures of the day he was born, and if he didn't do better, he may not be there to explain it himself.

Johnny swallowed, thinking this conversation over.

"Ali explained it to me better, and…" She sighed. "I'm sorry, okay. I didn't know you were having trouble too." 

He blinked a couple of times, what had his friend told her? Johnny licked his lips.

"I won't do it again."

"Are you okay?" She asked, Johnny looked up at the screen. 

Sunlight was coming from the window in the room he used to share with her, her hair looking like caramel against it, Robby's looking almost gold.

He sighed, shaking his head.

When Jeny told him he had an hormonal imbalance he had laughed and almost ran from her office. But he had sat down there and listened: because he had abruptly left his pregnant omega, his emotions were a wreck. 

That wreck had consequences in every aspect of his life, making his instincts go crazy, his hormones wreak havoc in his body. 

_ "Believe it or not, is common." _ She had said.  _ "That's why you didn't get a rut, your body believes you're still waiting for her to give birth so you can welcome your son." _

He bit the inside of his cheek now as he did then while Jeny kept talking.  _ "It's denial, Johnny. It's grief. It won't be better in your heart until you reach acceptance. Meanwhile, we can do something about your instincts and hormones. Our program is beneficial for both, omegas and alpha going through difficult times. You see, the idea is that…" _

He nodded at Shannon, opening his mouth to speak again.

"No, I'm not… I'm not okay."

The surprise on her face wasn't even offensive. He sighed and hoped this time was over, but she only smiled at him.

"Is the program actually helping you?"

He swallowed. "I don't know…" Johnny bit his bottom lip. "I couldn't do it, though. I couldn't… go in there with Carmen when her son was born."

"It's a boy?" She asked, he just nodded. "Why couldn't you?"

Johnny shook his head, unable to say it. Saying it was admitting the rest of it, all that guilt in his chest. He looked at his son now, Ali's words echoing in his head, you can't erase the past—but you can do better for the future.

"It felt wrong." He answered. "I couldn't do that to him."

Shannon looked down at their son, then kissed the top of his head.

"When you told me about it," she started, "I felt like you had replaced us."

"Shannon—"

"I thought like, this lady you just met and her son are worth the try but we weren't. Not to you." She said, voice devoid of her usual joy. "You could be there for her and her kid, but not us. You could change for them, but not us. Robby and I weren't enough."

"That's not truth, that's not why—"

"I know." She answered, still sounding sad. "I'm doing my best to understand it." Shannon sighed. "You need it, like I needed therapy." She nodded. "If you think doing it again will help, I think you should do it. But I have one condition."

Johnny sighed. "Yeah?"

She blinked a couple of times. "Two, actually."

"Okay."

"You have to be with Robby on your free day." She said, Johnny felt his shoulders fall. He could do that, he could definitely do that. "I mean all day. You take care of him, you change him, you're there when he cries."

"Yeah, all right…"

"You can stay here, if you take him to your place then you take him back the next day, okay? I'm not picking him up, he's your responsibility."

"Okay." He said firmly.

"Oki!" Robby giggled. "Oki!"

Shannon smiled, then sighed.

"The other is… get me an interview in your agency."

He was already late to get back. 

Johnny frowned and arched an eyebrow at her. "What?"

"Get me an interview in your agency! If I don't fly soon, I'm gonna go crazy!" She said. "And Johnny, we can't keep depending on you for everything. Look at my hair, it needs a fix!"

He swallowed, nodding. He could talk to Joel from Human Resources and the boss if necessary, put a good word for Shannon. Aunt Diana would likely write a recommendation letter for her, make her transition easier as she did Johnny's.

If Shannon got a job with him, they could coordinate their schedule so when she flung, he could stay with Robby, and when he was in the air, she was on land with their son.

"Yeah, okay. Get your resume ready."

"It's done!" She announced, suddenly sounding alive. "I got a letter from Aunt Diana, one from Mrs. Atlas, you know—she trained me and was our senior when I worked with them. And also got one from Captain Shepard!"

"Great!" It really was. "This could work, yeah."

"Yes!" She laughed, looking excited. "it's good because then you could go back to a normal schedule and spend more time with Robby!"

It was perfect, it could work.

Even though it was late, Johnny let the call continue as he got ready for his flight and Shannon filled him in on her plans, how happy she was to get back to work after a year away from the air.

“I have to go now.” He said afterwards, already at the door. “I talk to you tomorrow, okay?”

“Yeah, yeah. Where are you going now?”

“Orlando.” He sighed. “Hey, pup. Say goodbye to dad.”

“No!” The kid said without looking up.

“No?” He laughed, his chest closing. “Come on, man, I have to go.”

“No!” He said again, looking up. “Tay!”

“Tay?” Shannon asked him. “Who’s that? We don’t know any Tay.”

“Tay!” He said again, opening his arms.

Johnny smiled at him and sighed “I gotta go, Shan.”

“Yeah, don’t worry.” She said. “Fly safely!”

“Sure.” He chuckled. “Bye, sweetheart.” He swallowed. “I love you.”

“Dada, tay!”

He smiled again, waving at the kid. He waved back like out of instinct and then, the screen went black.

Johnny sighed, leaving the coffee room to walk the hallway down to the gates, get to his plane and out of this city. He'll be sleeping here for the day and his chest was already feeling odd.

* * *

It sounded like  _ stay _ , his son's voice at the end of that call.

It had sounded like  _ stay _ .

_ Dad, stay. _

* * *

Ever since he was a child, Johnny hated strong smells.

It always made his nose itchy, put a frown on his face, put him on edge. 

Often, his mother told him that was the first sign for her to know that he was different. He was never like the other kids, her little boy had turned out to be an alpha and in her old fashioned omega condition, she had been proud and happy to say so to the rest of the world.

Never in her wildest dreams did she think he would end up almost hating the fact.

Almost.

Daniel LaRusso seemed like a cartoon to him the first time they saw each other.

He had been dressed in sports gear like a soccer dad with his hair put aside, tamed by products as he disguised his scent with suppressants and cologne. But Johnny had recognized his assignation right away, feeling on edge as they were sitting in a coffee house to talk and see the possibility of becoming roommates.

The whole meeting, Johnny sat there and wondered how could this be—he had always been terrible at recognizing assignations, though he was good at recognizing people by smell alone, and this guy… his smell stayed with him for days after.

He should’ve known better.

Johnny should’ve known Miyagi’s intention since the beginning, the man was a prank master and this felt like one of those—ever since he met him, almost a year ago, Johnny was ready for whatever the old clown could throw at him but this—

He hadn’t seen it coming.

_ “No joke.” _ The man had said as Johnny stood in his workshop in his building-to-be.  _ “Daniel-san good roommate, good worker.” _ He looked at him.  _ “Good friend.” _

_ “He’s an omega.” _

Miyagi nodded.  _ "What about it, Johnny-san?" _

_ "I'm an alpha."  _ Johnny said as an explanation, frowning deeper.

The little man stopped going around his workshop, looking at Johnny with annoyance. 

Johnny stood there, feeling ashamed for no reason. The judgemental look on the beta always got to him somehow, and he wasn’t entirely sure as to why he had gained so much respect for him in such a short period of time.

_ "And?" _

_ "It's inappropriate! Even dangerous!"  _

Miyagi arched an eyebrow. _ "Are you animal?" _

_ "No…" _

_ "Are you rapist?" _

_ "Oh my God, old man! No!" _

_ "Then repeat yourself" _ he said, signaling the side of his head as he spoke,  _ "and think, Johnny-san. Think what you imply." _

The thing didn’t end there.

Johnny had tried his best to find another place, as economic and close to Shannon’s place so he could be close to Robby, but luck was never on his side and Johnny had ended up in that coffee shop again, this time with crossed arms and a frown.

_ “Are you okay?” _ Daniel had asked, making him frown deeper.  _ “Okay…” _

He could tell right in that moment that the man was now suspicious of him, on guard as they talked about payment of services and fridge privileges. 

It didn’t pass over his head, that he was being able to say the man’s mood changes as they talked and toured the apartment later that day, that Daniel didn’t like him who needed the help and so, they shook hands and his smell lingered on him until he was moving.

Laura Lawrence hadn’t raised an asshole, in spite of his bullshit.

He wasn’t about to scent the place and suffocate the omega with his smell.

So, Johnny kept to his room, barely interacted with his roommate, did his job, got paid, and passed Shannon child support as he slowly tried to get as involved in his child’s life as she would let him.

This journey, from all flights he’s ever done, had turned out to be the hardest in his life.

And then—

He blinked now looking at the door of the apartment. 

Johnny took a deep breath, because today LaRusso was having a little girl, and his apartment always smelled of him and there was nothing he could do about it. He opened the door and swallowed as the sweet smell of flowers and other greeneries hit him in the face.

Quietly, he went in and sighed, planning on running to his room and maybe taking a shower, have some rest before starting the day all over again and—

"Hey." He heard.

Johnny blinked, stopping without looking back. He bit the inside of his cheek as he closed the door and turned around to find his roommate sitting on the couch in the dark where he usually was lately.

"What are you doing awake?"

The omega shrugged.

"I've stopped questioning it."

Johnby blinked a couple of times before sighing, leaving his suitcase near the table with the rest of his shit, and walked directly into the kitchen without saying a word, ready to get this man some warm milk and send him to bed.

He stopped on his tracks near the fridge, wondering if this was the right move.

Days ago, he had told himself he would stop getting involved with his roommate, especially now that the man was dating and didn't need his alpha roommate to invade his personal space like this anymore.

Actually, never. He should have never done those things before—

“Johnny?”

Clearing his throat, he opened the fridge and took a bottle of water, then walked out the kitchen and into the living room where the omega was sitting, seemingly waiting for him.

Probably waiting for an answer.

His eyes were a deep yet soft brown Johnny had never seen before. They went around him and stopped at his hand, looking down in disappointment, then back up with a little curve he supposed was an attempt at a smile.

"Where were you this time?"

Johnny breathed in. "San Francisco." Then out. “Orlando… back to San Francisco.”

The omega nodded, smiling at him a bit more naturally now, then going back to the book he’d been reading. He could see the red letters Shannon had left there, Johnny frowned and hopped whatever the message was on that page, it wasn’t so bad.

He shouldn’t have given his roommate those fucking books.

“How was your date?” He couldn’t help but ask.

Daniel looked up with a frown. “Date? What d—” His eyes opened wide. “Oh, that. Oh, God…” He chuckled, shaking his head. “Not so well, I guess… I mean, I’m not seeing them again, so…”

His stomach dropped.

Johnny nodded and took a long sip of water as his brain went faster than it had all day.

The omega sighed and smiled at him, blinking a couple of times before closing his book.

Johnny wondered what LaRusso liked, what he was into—the woman that was usually with him was gorgeous, he’d seen the photos of the lady he seemed to have dated that Miyagi was constantly bringing up, too—

(Kimiko? Kumijo?  _ Kumiko! _ )

This man was into beautiful women.

He shook his head, their eyes met for long, tense seconds.

_ “I mean, that—if you could be my match?” _

Johnny swallowed, looking away and into the table. He needed to sleep, get ready for tomorrow morning because he was actually taking the long way to Chicago—which meant several cities before the one, two nights sleeping away from the Valley, away from his son and this, this man that—

_ “I—aren’t you dating?” _

_ “Uh, yes, but like…” _

_ “Let me think about it?” _

The omega had blinked, then smiled at him with a blush on his face. And now…

“Uh, Johnny?” 

He blinked out of his head, looking at Daniel sitting there.

“I know… I know you said you wanted to think about it, but have you?” He visibly swallowed. “Have you thought about the match?” He asked softly, so low, Johnny wouldn’t have been able to hear him if he hadn’t been putting his entire attention.

“I—” He bit his tongue, then nodded. “I have, yes, but it’s just… complicated.”

Daniel blinked. “Why?”

“Well…” He cleared his throat. “The thing about Carmen is that I helped for a very short period of time, just two months. Almost three.”

“Yeah?”

“So… with you… it’s your entire pregnancy.” Johnny swallowed. “I haven’t—I’m not sure if I can do that… especially with someone I live with.”

“But—”

Johnny shook his head. “I wouldn’t want it to become awkward after.” He said firmly. “You deserve to have your life, find a partner, have your pup safely… If we just throw ourselves into it, your pup can even end up thinking I’m her—you know.”

He took a deep breath, sighing after as the man thought of it. Daniel nodded, still looking sad and disappointed. The sight of it made his chest hurt, feel empty.

“Yeah, you’re right…”

“Just…” Johnny shook his head, unable to believe he was doing this. “Let me talk about it with Jeny. Alright?”

Daniel looked up in that moment, big brown eyes shining with hope.

“Okay! Yes, of course.”

“Right.”

Oh boy. 

Johnny smiled at him, remembering the first time he saw Daniel as he entered the coffee house, looking softer than anybody in the place yet so secure of himself, it had made him feel like this.

Empty, with an aching chest.

* * *

Johnny had told himself helping Carmen was a one time thing.

He had said to Jeny and Mr. Harmon that he wouldn’t be doing it again, for him it was enough—he could deal with his emotional and instinctual mess in other ways, even take counsel as he was suggested by Jimmy, or therapy shit, whatever.

But to get involved like this again—he couldn’t do it.

Not when he had failed with who mattered the most, not when he wasn’t there to experience it naturally. It had felt as if he was betraying them even more, and so… it was a one time thing.

But his roommate’s desperation could be smelled in the air.

He could smell every time he felt alone, almost feeling it as he lay on his bed at night, wondering how an omega like that could be left by the other parent of his pup.

In theory, Johnny knew his roommate's hormones played him dirty during gestation, pregnancies were always called magical and wonderful but the truth is—it's all a huge mess.

Jeny smiled at him when she entered her office, Johnny stood up and hugged her as he sighed, greeting each other like family.

"It's so good to see you, Johnny!" She said with a smile. "Jim is dropping by in a few minutes, so let's get to that before you two fall into the baseball and karate rabbit hole as always."

Johnny chuckled, sitting down as she walked around her desk and into her own chair, sitting with a sweet smile and a bounce of her curly black hair.

“How did you feel with Carmen?” She said.

He took a deep breath and nodded. “Great, actually… and then super guilty.”

She looked up at him, looking around his face. “Shannon said something?”

“She says a lot of things…” He admitted. “I don’t know why I told her about it.”

“Because it’s the right thing to do.” Jeny reminded him. Johnny shook his head. “Look, she’s not gonna be mad forever, but you gotta understand, Johnny—”

“I know, I know…” He cleared his throat. “We… we talked about it again recently.”

“Yeah? And how it went?”

“Good, actually.” He admitted. “She said it would be okay if I did it again.”

“Well, all that emotional mess it’s all affecting you, that’s why we do this.” She reminded him, Johnny looked at her when she stopped talking. 

Her eyes were a soft brown that contrasted amazingly with her darker skin. Johnny could totally understand why Jimmy had been starstruck with her since the moment they met. 

“Your body is reflecting your soul.” She explained, Johnny felt his shoulders tense. “As long as your emotions are all over the place, your instincts will go bananas every time you smell distress.” Jeny blinked. “And your roommate is a sweetie, of course your instincts were gonna misbehave the moment that little heart started to beat inside him!”

Johnny sighed, nodding.

“Alright, then what? What should I do?” He licked between his lips. “I… You and Jimmy said I need to give Shannon space and time to heal? Whatever the fuck that means—but then what do I do with this?” He put a hand on his chest, feeling desperate as he tried to put into words how he felt. “I feel… I don’t know what I’m feeling, okay? It’s a strange nothing. Like a hole in there… I don’t know.”

Jeny made a face, sighing after.

“I think what you need is your son.” She said, the hole in his chest stung. “But all our actions have consequences, John Henry Lawrence, and you're paying for yours.”

He looked up at her again with a frown.

“Help your roommate.” Jeny said, but it didn’t sound like an order—she was advising him. “Not even under our supervision if you want. No money involved or paperwork. Just continue to do what you’ve been doing for him.”

“How do you know— Oh.”

The woman smiled at him, winking as he sat with his back on the chair. 

Daniel had been talking to her, he had told him that much. That he had started the matching process and therefore, Jeny knew everything about his pregnancy and his emotional estate, she knew about what Johnny had been up to.

Sighing, he nodded.

“I’ll think about it.”

Jeny nodded. “Good.” She swallowed. “How’s the other thing going?”

Johnny looked at her for a second, then searched for the ten months medall in his jacket’s pocket. He looked at it in his hand for a moment, showing it to her the next time.

“Good.” She smiled at him. “Say hi to Mr. Mills when you see him, please.”

“God…” Johnny shook his head. “Don’t remind me, I’m pretty sure he’s plotting how to get me and Ali married without us knowing.”

The woman laughed with him, shaking her head. They kept talking about it, their friends and family, until Jimmy showed up and they left for lunch together. 

But even in his friend's company, all Daniel had in his head was his son and Shannon's face as he told her about Carmen and Miguel—her anger, the way she looked so heartbroken every time he did something—it didn't let him sleep.

"She needed the help she’s getting." Jimmy said after listening to him, talking of Shannon’s ongoing therapies. "And so do you."

"Come on, that's why I have you!" Johnny frowned, taking a sip of his coke. "You're our shrink friend, that's what you do… What's the point of these pussy conversations then?"

Jimmy arched an eyebrow. "We are friends, you idiot. We are supposed to talk about everything!"

He made a tsk sound with his tongue, smiling at Jimmy's laugh as he sighed and sat back, looking at his friend taking a bite of his burrito.

They were sitting outside of a mexican place Jimmy had been pestering him with, something about the best food he's ever had and whatnot.

It wasn't so bad.

"I'm gonna start charging you then, see how you like that."

Johnny rolled his eyes. "Fine. Lunch's on me."

The man smiled at him, looking like his younger self.

He'd been the only beta in advanced class in Cobra Kai, one of the very few Kreese had let in after maintaining an alpha males only policy for years.

Johnny could remember Bobby befriending Jimmy, bringing him to their beach walks and mall excursions in spite of his and Dutch's frowns. He could remember growing protective of him, closer, and now Johnny couldn't imagine a life without him.

"How's Robby?"

He sighed, liking his lips. "Running, waving and repeating some words as best he can." He smiled. "I think he does understand I'm dada and Shannon is mommy, though." 

Johnny's smile became bigger. "Actually, he called my roommate by his name!" Jimmy's eyes shone while listening to him. "I mean, he called him  _ Damiel _ . But he knew it was him."

He licked his lips and sighed again. 

"The other day he got really excited because Shannon let me talk to him on the phone…"

"Yeah?"

Johnny crossed his arms over his chest. "Yeah, it looks like he couldn't believe my voice was there… but," Johnny swallowed, looking away, "he then started to cry desperately."

He made a pause, looking up at his friend who had stopped eating to listen to him with focus.

"Apparently, he got frustrated he couldn't find me in the room." Johnny said, frowning at the memory of his son crying disconsolately. "Shannon said he kept looking around and kicking, and I heard him calling while crying, I—" He shook his head. "Fuck, Jimmy."

“He recognizes you, that’s cool.”

Johnny squeezed the bridge of his nose with two fingers, eyes closed.

“No when he cries like that.”

It was hard to endure, standing there as he knew he needed to be away for what was best for Robby yet wanting to be close. Knowing he didn’t deserve to be, and still wanting it. It was a bullshit situation.

“But,” he added, “Shannon now does this… video stuff. It’s a call with a video.”

“A video-call, Johnny.” Jimmy arched an eyebrow.

He frowned at his friend. “Whatever, that’s nerd shit and I ain’t one.”

Jimmy rolled his eyes and gave a sip to his beer.

He looked at it for a second too long, following a drop that was sliding through the bottle, slowly going down until it ended on the table. Johnny looked away, biting his bottom lip.

“What have you thought of the flying situation?” Jimmy asked after a while.

Johnny looked up. “Jimmy,” He licked his lips. “Shannon and I work for different agencies, it’ll be impossible to coordinate a flying schedule like that.”

“Yeah, if you haven’t ditched Aunt Diana—”

He frowned, looking at his friend. “Seriously?”

Jimmy shrugged. “She didn’t fire you even when she probably should’ve.”

The memory made his stomach knot. Johnny shook his head and sighed, looking away.

“I don't want to pressure Shannon either."

Jimmy didn't reply to that.

“But… she actually asked me to get her an interview at my agency.”

“She’s gonna quit with Aunt Diana?”

“Only if this goes right…” He cleared his throat. “Aunt Diana is supporting her, she won’t let HR get in the way so she can have the interview safely.”

His friend nodded. “That’s awesome, man. I hope it goes well.” He sighed. “Specially for her… she must miss it badly.”

“Yeah…” 

He couldn’t imagine himself without flying. He almost lost it once… Shannon was right, if she didn’t get off the ground again soon, she was going to end up nuts.

They kept eating and then talking about anything else, anything but the things fucking up his life right now, the other million things they had in common and would never speak of in spite of the years.

Pain had always been a common thing in his life to the point it made him numb to it all. In that numbness, flying was the only thing that made sense.

It was in the air that he met Shannon, and it was all good for a moment—suspended in time like a pretty picture, but like all things exposed, it faded.

Now, they searched for the pieces of each other that weren't broken, to make sense of that picture again, for the sake of their pup.

"You should bring Robby to Tommy's next week, man. Get him to know the kids." Jimmy reminded him as they walked to their cars.

Johnny thought of it, of his son one day playing with Bobby's and Jimmy's, calling his friends his Uncles, their children his cousins.

It was the life his mother taught him growing up: their neighbors that took care of him while she worked were his Uncles, the nice lady from apartment one who always made dinner for them was Granny, her high school friend that even now called Johnny every month was his Aunt.

Robby should learn to love like that, like his grandmother. 

She had been taken from them way too soon, so at least his son could've this—he could meet his grandmother through the things he was raised with.

"Yeah, I'll tell Shannon."

"Great! Aw man, Jeny's gonna love it!"

Robby should grow up with Johnny's family, too.

* * *

He supposed he should hate meeting Thursdays, but at this point, it was just another thing he did to keep a semblance of normal.

Blinking, Johnny looked up as someone else took the ever so awkward spotlight and another story, another struggle, was shared.

"Ow!" He jumped slightly on his seat, looking at his side to find Miyagi giving him a look—it looked like a glare. "What?"

The man leaned closer, speaking low and only for him. "Share."

"What, no!" He shout-murmured. "I had a bad week, okay? I don't need this."

If this was anybody else, the conversation would have died there but right after, Johnny felt the man pinching his bicep hard.

"Ow!" He looked back at him. "Stop that!"

"Share!"

"You two!" They heard. Johnny took a deep breath and slowly looked back at Patrick. "You've been anxious today. Something you wanna say next?"

He looked at the old man, who nodded at him.

"Yeah, sure. I'll go next."

"Nice!" Patrick smiled at him, notoriously fake and done with their bullshit. "Now, let's listen to Linda."

"Sorry…"

Linda kept talking as Johnny tried to make himself small on his chair, Miyagi at his side sporting a satisfied smile that was giving him a headache. 

He should be used to all this by now, but… 

Johnny sighed.

The old man may be a beta, but Johnny was sure he had  _ alpha smell _ or something; he knew when he wasn't feeling it, when he had a bad week or had drank.

He held his anger and frustrations on a fist, held it with his other hand and prepared to speak when it was his turn.

"My name is Johnny." He said aloud. "And I'm an alcoholic." 

Johnny looked up while sitting, waiting for the greeting back, then preparing himself for the rest.

"I've been sober for ten months." He swallowed. "But around two weeks ago, I had half a beer."

Nervously, he licked his lips, waiting for a reprimand, gasps, disappointment. When it didn't come, he kept going.

"It was hot and I had… I had just talked to my pup's mother about our situation…" He swallowed, looking down. "Money is tough, she's still not working and she's also helping an aunt that fell and can't work while recovering…"

Johnny shook his head, remembered he needed to get to the point.

"I thought I could handle it." He said, looking up at Patrick. "But the moment I had a sip, I felt like another person."

Maybe Miyagi knew what he was about to say, maybe that was why he wanted him to speak up. 

Was this punishment? Had he finally realized he made a mistake by setting up Johnny as LaRusso's roommate?

"I… had half the beer only." He said quietly. "And treated my roommate… well. Not bad? Just… I guess, inappropriately."

He cleared his throat, realizing he was still up.

"I called him by his assignation." He sighed. "He's an omega."

"Honey…" He heard Mrs. Davidson murmur.

Johnny shook his head. "Nothing else happened but that shouldn't have anyway." He admitted. "And I'm sure I wouldn't have done it otherwise. It was as if just a sip gave chance to something else."

He saw Patrick nod.

"So now I'm wondering if I'm just straight up crazy. Or this is just who I've always been and I just hid it in the bottle." Johnny admitted. "I can't even take a sip anymore. I've ruined it forever… and because it's worse than I thought, I—I don't know if I'll ever be free of it again."

Few seconds passed, then Johnny looked down at his feet.

He knew people were watching him, that Miyagi had his eyes on him and the man may give him a piece of his mind after. Right now, though—Patrick spoke with his forever softness and understanding.

"We all have bad moments, we all think we can handle it. And we'll do it eventually," the man spoke to all of them, "but the first it's always harder. It's new. It's scary."

The man smiled at him. "Johnny, I'm proud you didn't give up and were able to stop when you noticed it was wrong." He said. "It's a great deal that you were able to recognize the hold it has on you, now we're gonna work on tackling it and taking away that power."

Patrick opened his arms, nodding to the others. "That's why we are here, that's why we share. To help one another and take that power back."

He kept going for several minutes, making Johnny sigh as the heaviness of his shoulders dissipped and he could finally look forward and clearear.

Johnny looked at his side to find Miyagi looking at him. The man smiled, then nodded as if assuring him it was okay, they were fine.

But were they? Was he even fine with Daniel?

The guy had asked him to match him in Jeny's program, help him with his hormones and other emotional shitshows coming with the pregnancy—he trusted him.

For some reason, the guy trusted him.

"Ah," Miyagi started as they drove back home, "Johnny-san good man." He nodded.

He replied immediately: "I'm not a good man..."

"Yes." Was all he said. "You are."

Johnny licked his lips, shaking his head slightly as they stopped at a red light.

"So, he told you about it or what?" 

Miyagi shook his head. "No. Miyagi just knows, Johnny-san." The man looked at him. "You are… an open book, as say."

He couldn't help but chuckle.

There was something almost mystical in this man, the way he knew things and seemed to understand it all better than anyone else, even him.

In silence, they drove away when the light went green.

"You keep these still a secret?" Johnny asked. "He hasn't asked me again but he didn't go all neurotic on me when I had the one beer, so…"

Miyagi shook his head.

"Not yet." He sighed. "Don't want to worry. No with pup on the way."

It was Johnny's turn to nod. He took a turn and in a block more they would finally be in the aparment's complex. Back to their real life.

"You won't say anything about the match?"

The man shook his head no.

"What if I said no?"

"It's Johnny-san's decision."

"Yeah…" It was all in his hands now. 

Whatever happened now between them, it was on him.

* * *

"I hate this place…" Mrs. Batson murmured as yet another pipe made a questionable noise. "No offense to Mr. Miyagi, he’s an excellent handyman, it's just this room in particular…"

"It's just old, honey." Her husband said, Johnny looked up from his pile of clothes to see them put their clean laundry into their basket to finally leave. "It feels like the pipes have a life of their own."

He couldn’t help but smile at that. 

The laundry room was indeed old and seemed to always be messy in spite of maintenance keeping it as clean as possible, no dust in sight in spite of the bad illumination and the noise of the pipes.

Once he and Miyagi had plotted a way to convince the landlord to replace them, even went as far as to think that if the man refused again, they could actually break them to make him do it—then, Rosa had hit them both with a shirt on the face, sending them out the room.

Now, he stood here alone as the Batsons went away with their clean laundry, sighing at the sight of the desolted image of solitude, a much wanted one after a messy week of strange feelings as thoughts.

As promised, Johnny thought of the match almost as much as he thought of Robby and Miguel.

He thought that while things may get complicated, there's always the chance they won't.

After leaving the washing machine programmed, he walked away from it to sit and wait, not really wanting to get upstairs then have to come back here. He sighed, blinking a couple of times as he took his planner, maps and pen.

The signal in the room was garbage, so Johnny always used his time downstairs for his itinerary for the rest of the week and maybe next week, if it was available.

He licked his lips, thinking that things wouldn't actually change much from what was happening in his apartment already: leaving breakfast for the omega, giving him a scented pillow, making sure he slept and didn't carry heavy things.

What else could happen?

Passing an arm behind him while watching TV, assuring him he was doing a good job, soothing his nerves at times… all those things he did for Carmen, just for a few more months.

And—LaRusso was having a daughter.

The idea of a little  _ Danielle  _ was, well—it was cute, made him smile.

Another friend for his son, another lesson.

What wrong could there be in helping them out?

“Oh, hey!” He heard coming from the entrance. Johnny looked up to find his roommate there, carrying his laundry basket with his own girly detergent and so. “I didn’t know you were around tonight!”

Johnny ran to him as he spoke, taking the basket away from him. “What the hell are you doing?”

LaRusso blinked. “About to do my laundry, maybe?”

“Those bottles are heavy! Dirty clothes, too. Didn’t we tell you not to carry heavy shit?” He frowned, not entirely sure as to why he was angry. 

“Uh, so I’m not supposed to do my laundry?” He asked with annoyance.

“Just ask someone else to get it down for you.” Johnny answered, shaking his head as he looked away. “Jesus, LaRusso.”

He walked away with the basket. It wasn’t truly heavy, but required enough effort with the ridiculously big detergent bottles his roommate brought, supposedly to not have to buy all the time when doing groceries.

The man walked behind him, taking a pillowcase filled with clothes from the basket. 

Johnny blinked and looked inside it, where other pillowcases were filled with what he assumed was clothes. The fact made him smile, thinking of how his roommate separated his clothes to wash them. 

He turned to watch him choose a machine and get to work, so… Johnny went back to his, taking his planner and reading over the last scheduled flight he had, then checking its details: what plane he was getting tomorrow morning, where he’ll stay the fifty minutes between this and the next flight, the team he was flying with—

“What are you doing?” He heard, Johnny looked up and saw LaRusso bending down to put his clothes into the machine. “Pilot stuff?”

Johnny smiled at him, and looked down at his planner again. “Yeah. I’m making sure my scheduled flights for tomorrow are all in order and don’t crash with each other… and that my tickets and hotel reservations are all correct with the dates and hours.”

“Sounds tedious…”

“Not really.” Johnny assured him. “It’s part of it, I’m used to it.”

The man remained silent as he finished preparing the machine. 

He walked over to take the detergent. Johnny saw him hesitate before taking it, looking at him with his hand almost touching it, then away. He left the pencil aside and waited, blinking as Daniel kept doubting himself.

“Hey, Johnny…”

“Uhm?” He looked up, pretending he wasn’t aware of what was happening. 

“So, uhm, I really need to…” He signaled the bottle.

Johnny looked at it and nodded, leaving his shit aside and standing to help the man.

He knew there was probably not problem in him handing these things and he was just being a pain in the ass to the omega, he remembered Shannon giving him dirty looks when he wouldn’t let her do these simple things in spite of Mr. Harmon told them it was fine.

But there was something about this—feeling useful made him feel less like… something was missing, less like whatever he had become after not being there for his son and his mother.

He poured the thing into the little plastic cup Daniel had for the detergent and the scent thing he also handled. Johnny stood there watching him get back to his machine, putting the liquids and programming it, then as the man came back and sat down, looking up at him.

“Is there a reason in particular you’re doing laundry at this hour?” He asked.

Johnny sighed, sitting down again. There was only one seat between them. 

“Uhm…” He thought of it. “Aside from there being no one around this hour, except for you, weirdo that doesn’t sleep, it’s just that I really don’t have time earlier.”

The omega smiled at him. “Don’t you wake up early tomorrow?”

“Mhm, but again… no time for that.” He sighed.

They kept quiet after, the guy taking out one of the books he had given him, Johnny back at his planner and maps. For long minutes, or maybe just one, they stayed like that, then LaRusso was looking at him again.

“I haven’t seen Robby lately.” Daniel murmured, Johnny looked at him. “How is he doing?”

“Running.” He answered. “We made a video call the other day.”

“Oh, that’s cute!” He said, his cheeks turning pink. “How did he take it? You think he knew it was you?”

“Oh yeah.” Johnny closed his planner. “He yelled “dada” when he saw me.” He said, LaRusso laughed at it. “I don’t think he was aware we were supposed to talk, though. Once he saw nothing else was happening, he went back to his blocks.”

The man smiled at him. “He’s so sweet, I… kind of miss him.” He cleared his throat after. “I don’t know why…”

Johnny looked at him for a few seconds, studying the expression of his face as the omega was genuinely confused and what seemed to be overwhelmed. He smiled and left his planner aside on his own basket.

“It’s the smell.” Johnny said, he felt the moment Daniel looked at him. “Don’t worry about it, it’s normal.”

“What do you mean is the smell?”

“Well,” he took a deep breath, “haven’t you noticed, even before the pregnancy, that babies have a very specific smell?” His roommate nodded. “That’s what I mean, now that you are pregnant, you’re… changing and, uhm, hormonal and stuff. So the smell is stronger… it kind of makes you want to be around babies more often.”

LaRusso was nodding, as if this was truly some big revelation he didn’t see coming.

If he was doing it just to make Johnny feel good or something, he was good at acting and Johnny a complete moron, but he let it go and smiled at the man when he looked at him again.

“Doesn’t it happen with Miguel, too?”

He nodded again, smiling. “Oh god, he's so soft!” He said. 

Johnny couldn’t help but smile. 

“I know all babies are soft, but Miguel is just so cute and small. Makes me want to… to steal him and carry him all day.”

“Better not say that in front of his grandma,” Johnny said between laughs, “she’ll tore you a new one.”

“Yeah…” The omega sighed. “Still! So cute!”

It really was cute.

He wasn’t sure for how long they stayed there, but by the time LaRusso was finally tired and wanted to sleep, Johnny had long finished his own laundry and was only waiting for him to be done.

Between words, they walked side by side into the hallways and the elevator, then their apartment as Daniel talked of how much he was looking forward to finally showing, just to make sure it was real and truly happening.

There was no way something would be wrong in helping him, Johnny decided.

He left the basket on LaRusso’s bed as instructed, looking around before turning and leaving his room, always smelling of flowers that reminded him of growing up with his mother in the garden. The monkey was still on his bedside table, facing him when he slept, alongside a shot of his ultrasound he had shown Johnny weeks ago.

“I hope Robby comes soon.” Daniel murmured as he walked behind Johnny towards the door. 

“Yeah, me too.” He admitted, turning to look at him. “Good night, LaRusso.”

The man smiled at him from ear to ear. “Good night, Johnny.”

* * *

In the days after their late night laundry session, Johnny didn’t see much of LaRusso or any of his friends, the ones he was growing so accustomed to.

He went to work, called Shannon and Robby, had dinner at the Diaz’s once a week, saw his son on his free day, and waited for the next Thursday to drive Miyagi to the meeting, and sigh for the rest of the day.

“You don’t seem too happy.” Shannon said as he was picking up Robby to watch him as Shannon got her hair fixed. “Look, if thi is out of place, I understand, okay? I can just—”

“It’s not that, Shan.” He said with a smile. “It’s… it’s nothing, okay? Don’t worry about it.”

“I kinda have to…” She bit her bottom lip. “You’re taking my son with you…”

“Shut it, woman, he’s gonna be alright.” Johnny looked into the car where the kid was already on his seat, secured and ready to go. “Right, buddy?”

The kid smiled, probably without idea of what was happening now.

Johnny sighed, looking back at the woman who simply shook her head and let them go.

The drive to the apartment was mostly quiet, cars always made Robby sleepy and he was out within minutes. By the time he was parking, the kid was deeply asleep and barely opened his eyes when his father carried out the car, and into the apartment building.

He had thought of taking him to the Diaz’s, but seeing him asleep like this made him realize they would have to stay home until he was awake again or it was time to take him back to Shannon’s.

So, at the end, he settled for putting his son into his crib and put on music while laying on his bed with his planner, making sure his kid was sleeping well when his phone vibrated and Johnny looked at it to find a message from Ali.

**(17:32 PM)** _Party time next week!_

He frowned, trying to remember—oh.

“Agh, shit…”

**(17:33 PM)** _No._

The phone vibrated again and Johnny rolled his eyes.

**(17:33 PM)** _HOLY SHIT, actual punctuation and all! You must be serious!_

He bit the inside of his cheek, trying his best not to smile as he was supposed to be mad at his friend. Johnny shook his head and wrote back,  _ leave me alone _ , only to be answered once again with so much shit, he gave up and called.

“No.” He said the second Ali answered. “I hate it, I don’t want to celebrate that.”

“But we have to! We have to!” She insisted. “It’s important, Johnny. It’s a huge accomplishment and plus, we haven’t seen each other in a while—”

“We see each other way too much, actually!”

“No, I mean… all of us. You, the guys, the gals.” She said. “Come on, I even got Susan and her lady to come.” Ali sounded excited. “I haven’t seen her in so long, it’s gonna be great!”

Johnny bit his bottom lip.

Next week was meeting Thursday, and it was… eleven months since he became sober.

He blinked a couple of times, thinking about it.

“We’ll cheer!” Ali said. “With diet coke and burgers!”

It sounded promising. Seeing everyone from before, the people he grew up with and became his family, dinner with Ali and Mr. Mills, even old man Miyagi… it could be good.

“Alright…”

She cheered loudly on the phone, making Johnny shake his head as he left his things aside and laid on his back, looking at the ceiling as he heard her talk.

It reminded him of high school and dating her.

Back then, life seemed to be easy and he had peaked then, he could amit that in the quiet of his head. He had peaked when he dated Ali and they ruled the Valley on motorcycles with painted helmets, when he won karate tournament after karate tournament, and didn’t know all the wrong things that were being made to him in the middle of that lie.

Was it pathetic to sometimes wish he had never realized? He supposed it was, but it had been a dream. A good one for so long… and it had only ruined him, once it ended. 

Ali instructed him as to when and where, right after the meeting at their usual from when they were kids. Her father was gonna love that—no fancy restaurants, just a bunch of childhood friends eating burgers in an old diner.

There was a knock on his door.

Johnny sat on the bed and looked at it.

“Hey, gotta go.” Johnny told Ali. “Talk to you later?”

“Mhm.” She answered. “Don’t forget to get me that information, Johnny.”

Johnny frowned, standing up as he shook his head.

“You’re the worst…”

“Just do it, come on.”

“Yeah, yeah—” He sighed, there was another knock. “Take care, babe.”

“See ya, hot stuff!”

He opened the door at the same time he sent the phone flying into his bed, finding his roommate’s curious face in front of him. Johnny leaned on the door’s frame with an arm up, smiling at him.

“Hey.”

“I—” He laughed nervously, then cleared his throat. “I was wondering if you wanted to… have dinner? I really want lasagna, but I’m not gonna eat an entire one all by myself…”

“Well…” Johnny looked back to where his son was asleep when he heard a gasp coming from his roommate. “LaRusso?”

“Robby!” He said with a smile. “Oh!” He put a hand over his mouth, surprised as he looked up at Johnny. “I’m sorry…” He said against his hand.

He shook his head, trying his best not to laugh.

“He sleeps like a rock, don’t worry.” 

Johnny stepped out of his room, closing the door behind him as they stood in the hallways. It felt as if they were always here, between their rooms and the rest of the apartment, in the poorly lighted part of an otherwise luminous place.

The omega cleared his throat again.

“Uh, so… since the baby is here, I guess no…”

“No, it’s okay.” He assured him. “He may not stay for long anyway, so…”

“Okay.” Daniel was smiling again. “I’m gonna go get some stuff I need and will come back to cook, right. I’ll let you know when it’s done.”

“Nah, come knock again when you get back.” Johnny opened the door. “I’ll help you.”

The guy simply nodded, looking excited for just some pasta.

* * *

Jimmy told him and Shannon they should start naming all things and people around Robby by their actual names, none of that little something shit, but its names. 

It would stimulate the boy’s mind, make him understand what thing was what, make him want to repeat the names and eventually get them right. And plus, the kid seemed to like when they did it, always laughing at the sound of new words, trying to say them back.

“Sink.” 

“Damiel!”

“That would be me.” LaRusso said with a smile, carrying Robby with one arm, while signaling the sink with his free hand. “Daniel.”

“Damiel!”

“No, Robby.” He shook his head, looking at the kid. “Da-ni-el.” He tried, the pup looked at him. “Daniel.” He said slowly.

Robby blinked, extending his arms before saying with a big smile: “DAMIEL!”

“Ow…”

Johnny couldn’t help but laugh at his roommate’s disappointed expression as the man looked at him, defeated by Robby’s stubbornness of calling him whatever he wanted. He was lucky he had even decided to give him a name, unlike most of his friends or Shannon’s family.

At the end, they had dinner together after he called Shannon and asked her if the kid could stay for longer. She had sounded excited at the idea of having the rest of the afternoon for herself, only asking him to bring him home not later than nine.

He had sat the kid on his chair at their table, fed him at the same time they ate, and even let the man try to feed him himself.

There was something nervous in the omega each time he did, each time he asked Johnny if he could carry his pup or feed him, as if doing it for the first time only served to remind him he was gonna be doing all these things on his own soon.

He watched the man walk around the kitchen with Robby, showing him things and telling him the names.

Something, the pup would try and repeat them. Other times, he would not put attention at all or look at his dad and call him.

Johnny smiled at him as he sat Robby on the breakfast island they used as a counter and window into the kitchen. The kid entertained himself with LaRusso’s tie that had been abandoned there earlier before he left to buy what was needed for the lasagna.

“You think he likes me?”

He shook his head. “Man…” And chuckled after. “I think so, yeah. I mean… he cries when he doesn’t like someone carrying him. You’re good.”

“Oh, good.” Daniel sighed. “Okay… I can do this, then.”

Johnny arched an eyebrow. “Are you worried your pup is not gonna like you?”

His cheeks went pink immediately. “I’ve never—I’ve never been good with children!”

Looking at his son, the way he had behaved with Daniel around, how he yelled Damiel every time he saw him, and had listened to him talk as they walked around the kitchen… there was no way.

“I don’t believe that at all.” Johnny said. “It’s okay, man. You’ll do great.”

Whatever Johnny had said, it worked. LaRusso was back at smiling and tending to whatever Robby was looking at, getting into his mouth, until the kid extended his arms towards Johnny.

“Here we go, champ.” Johnny said, taking his son in his arms. “Let’s check that diaper…”

He could tell his roommate wanted to say something, likely wanted to come and learn. Johnny looked at him.

“Wanna come?”

LaRusso smiled at him. “Yeah. Yeah, that would be great.”

Nothing great about dirty diapers, but Johnny understood. 

They walked into his room, watched as Daniel stopped in the entrance almost as if he had to brace himself before entering, and left his son on the bed while looking for his bag. 

He was clean at the end, which meant they could lay down and do nothing for the rest of the night before he had to get him to Shannon’s and miss him the rest of the night for his room smell of him and his heart couldn’t take it every time it happened.

Daniel was standing there still, looking around as if wondering what to do next.

“So, what have you thought to do with your studio?” Johnny asked, sitting on the bed after leaving Robby on his crib with his toys. “You said you were gonna turn it into a nursery.”

“I will!” He answered, excitedly. “Mr. Miyagi offered to help, but I haven’t had time to actually start… I need to move some things in my room to have the space for one of the bookshelves.”

“Mhm.” Johnny nodded, signaling his bed so the man would sit. He hesitated just a bit, then did it, facing Johnny. “You know…” He sighed. “Robby’s mom wants me to take the kid once a week. So I was thinking… would you mind sharing the room?”

His eyes opened wider, looking like Bambi with those huge dark shining eyes. Johnny swallowed at the sight, trying hard not to look… smitten.

“Not at all! This is perfect!” He said. “Oh, we can paint one side blue and the other pink—”

“Conventional…”

“Okay.” He rolled his eyes. “We’ll see… a mural?”

“Corny.”

“Ugh.” He shook his head. “Whatever. I still have plans for it, but you’re welcome to give some ideas… with taste.”

“Mmm…” Johnny looked at his son, who was looking sleepy again. “A map and stars in the ceiling.” He said, watching as Robby took his monkey doll and hugged it. “The Little Prince.”

He looked at the omega when he didn’t get an answer, the man was looking back with a lost expression—not shocked or even surprised, it looked… like awe. For some reason.

“That’s a good idea.” He murmured. “The Rose on her side…”

“Yeah.” Johnny answered. “Don’t worry about painting. I have a friend that can get us good prizes, even free material.” He sighed. “Since Shannon and I fly, Robby’s room in their home is plane and traveling themed, I thought if the ceiling is similar…”

“He’ll be more comfortable.” LaRusso got it. “Yes, it’s a wonderful idea. I love it.”

He nodded, suddenly excited with the little project. 

They talked about it a bit more until Shannon was texting him, already worried and wanting to see their son. Johnny shook his head, showing his roommate the texts before standing from his bed to get the kid ready.

He lingered there the whole time, helping by passing things, then walking with him to the entrance of their apartment where he said goodbye to Robby, the kid waving at him and yelling by all the way to the elevator.

As the door closed, he saw Daniel waving at them, his other hand slowly going to his still flat abdomen and his heart  _ jumped  _ in his chest.

* * *

He was gonna do it.

Johnny was gonna be Daniel’s match.

He laid on his bed that night, thinking of it—there was nothing wrong with helping, and he genuinely wanted to… it made him feel useful, capable of becoming a good father.

If he could care for them, then he could care better for Robby.

And if this helped him heal and be better for his son, then it was worth it.

* * *

"LaRusso." He knocked on his roommate's room. "Hey, LaR—"

The lady that was always with him opened the door, looking at Johnny with a smile as she moved aside to let him in.

Johnny blinked a couple of times looking at her.  _ Amanda _ , he remembered. And then, he looked inside where the AC was on and his roommate was shoving clothes back into his closet, notoriously annoyed.

"Daniel, honey?" She called him, he didn't stop. "Man, come on. You have a visitor."

"What?!" He yelled as he turned around with a frown.

Johnny arched an eyebrow, the man's face morphed from annoyance to surprise as he gasped, then his cheeks became pink.

"Johnny, hi!" He said, walking fast towards him. "What's wrong?"

He looked at Amanda, who walked deeper into the room and put out the clothes again into the bed. She folded and put shirts into hangers, happily ignoring them.

LaRusso moved closer, calling his attention to the fact that evergreen and gardenias could be smelled around him, coming out this room every time he opened the door and Johnny—he could recognize it anywhere, even in the dark, miles away.

He swallowed.

"I was just…" He sighed, he couldn't say it with the lady here. "Heard a noise." He lied. "Are you guys okay?"

"Peachy!" Amanda answered for LaRusso, the guy looked at him and forced a smile.

"Amanda says my closet is boring and needs to be burned down."

Only then he noticed the woman was also putting clothes into a pile on the floor.

He looked back at his roommate, who was looking at something around his body. His eyes snapped back up to his face and smiled again, cheeks slightly pink.

“Nothing to worry about, I’m just trying to get rid of her so we can” he looked at his friend, “actually go out as we planned!”

She rolled her eyes and kept going with the clothes, making the omega sigh and look back at Johnny.

“She’s a menace.”

“You guys are going out?”

LaRusso blinked a couple of times. “Yeah.” He smiled again but it was crooked, a little weird. “I mean, it’s… complicated…”

“We’re going to try and find Daniel’s baby daddy!” Amanda announced, Johnny blinked fast.

What?

He looked at his roommate, the man was shaking his head no and looking away as he stood close to Johnny.

“I… don’t know much of him.” He confessed, Johnny gave a step back. “So I was just… you know.”

Johnny nodded. “Okay.” He said, trying to smile at him when the omega looked up. “Alright, you have fun. See you.”

He blinked, then nodded. “See you, Johnny.”

Johnny stepped away from the room, his lungs filled with the sweet scent of his roommate, and walked away as the door closed behind him. 

Instead of getting into his room, he went into the kitchen and opened the fridge, noticing the half bottle of beer was still there with a napkin on the mouth, as if it could protect its liquid poison. 

He looked at it for long seconds, then took it with a too fast movement, wetting the napkin before he took it away and put it in the trash.

The smell of the beer replaced that of Daniel, his tongue becoming heavier in his mouth.

Johnny swallowed, watching as the liquid went away on the sink. He kept the bottle suspended in the air even after it was empty, slowly put it down and left it on the counter, going back to the fridge to get the rest of the beer in it.

His roommate may ask later, may tell him to pay for it, but he didn’t care.

Each beer was emptied in the sink, the kitchen smelling of alcohol as laughter echoed in the apartment from LaRusso’s room. 

Swallowing, he took each empty bottle and put it back on its box, then into a garbage bag, and finally into the trash. 

He stood there, thinking of Robby yelling for him to stay and Shannon looking up with sad eyes as she felt replaced, made less thanks to Johnny’s decisions. 

This was for the best—

“Johnny!” He heard his roommate call, Johnny turned around and ran into the hallway where the man stood holding his jeans. “Hey!”

LaRusso finished the distance between them, a huge smile on his face as he came into better view and looked up at Johnny with huge brown eyes shining in excitement.

“Look, look—” He lifted his blue shirt a little, his jeans were undone and his belly was exposed. “Look!”

“What?”

“I’m showing! Finally!”

He couldn’t see it. 

There was a fine pathway of black hair down to other parts of his roommate’s body, a small and admittedly cute belly button. A normal abdomen. Johnny looked up at him smiling while frowning.

“I don’t see it, man—”

“Oh, it’s just a little.” He sounded disappointed, but immediately smiled as he moved again. “You can feel it, though! Look—”

Daniel took Johnny’s wrist, moving his hand to where he wanted it: right in the middle of his lower belly, fingers touching the material of his jeans. Like this, his hand curled slightly as it was shoved against the omega’s warm belly.

And he was right, he was showing… impossible to really notice with sight, but here he was, belly starting to swole. 

Johnny couldn’t help but laugh, looking up at the man who smiled back at him, genuinely proud of this fact he had run to tell him. 

“Told you!” He said, keeping his hand against Johnny’s over his belly. “I was getting dressed and noticed it cost me just a little bit to close this thing and there it was! She’s showing!”

LaRusso was having a daughter. 

In a few more months, a little girl would be living here.

Johnny looked up at him and smiled, leaning his hand closer to his skin before slowly taking it away as the emotions settled around them. He could smell the rush of excitement coming off his roommate as he stood there, still smiling and looking at him, and Johnny wondered if he could tell of it and how well he had gotten to know his smell by now.

He’ll look adorable in a few months, belly up and round.

“I’ll see you later?” Daniel murmured.

Johnny knew they wouldn’t, but nodded anyway.

* * *

Johnny hated strong smells.

It always made his nose itchy, put a frown on his face, put him on edge. 

Often, his mother told him that was the first sign that he was different. 

He was never like the other kids, her little boy had turned out to be an alpha and in her old fashioned omega condition, she had been proud and happy to say so to the rest of the world.

As such, his mother had raised him like that—an old fashioned alpha.

One that knew he shouldn’t use his assignation to gain anything, let alone raise his voice and made use of his so called “alpha voice”. He shouldn’t call other people their assignations, specially not omegas, and he should always be a gentleman to them, to omegas such as her.

Laura showed him flowers, told him their meaning and guided him into slowly becoming accustomed to the smell of green and life, everything that grows and needs the sun, water and soil.

She said, _ <<You smell of evergreen, you know?>> _ as she smiled at him.  _ <<One day, you’ll find someone, maybe a nice beta or a smart omega, that will have that same smell.>> _

His mother believed in soulmates, people that are meant to be.

In school, Johnny had learned that yes—some smells complement each other, making people more likely to be compatible and succeed in a relationship of any kind. Like his friends and him, they all had earthy smells and even now, so many years after High School, they were still together.

Alphas know an omega or beta may be compatible with them right away, smell giving chance to instincts, instincts that are attracted to those scents that can be found in them and their omega parent, or their beta mothers.

The smell of home.

Months ago, a sunny December morning, he was hit with the smell of evergreen, roses and gardenias in a small coffee house.

He had only ever smelled such a specific scent of roses in his life, in his mother who had passed away almost a year ago when it happened. And in that state of shock and grief, Johnny had looked up and searched for the source.

_ “John?” _ A man asked him, standing in sports gear in front of him. His eyes opened as he looked up at his face.  _ “Hi, I’m Daniel! Mr. Miyagi said you were interested in being roommates.” _

He blinked rapidly, opening his mouth, then closing it.

The smell was coming from him.

_ “You’re, you’re—” _

_ “Uh,”  _ The man sat down in front of him, looking awkward.  _ “Yeah. Is that a problem? I thought Mr. Miyagi had told you…” _

Johnny closed his eyes hard, frowning before opening them again.

_ “No.” _

_ <<Alphas know by smell, my love.>> _ Laura had said in her garden.  _ <<One day, you’re gonna smell roses and evergreen, and something else… something unique. I hope it’s a flower!>> _ She had said.  _ <<And I hope it’s gentle… and sweet.>> _

_ “Well… I hope it’s not a problem.” _ Daniel had said, looking at him.  _ “Uhm. I’m sorry, this is gonna sound weird, it’s just…” _ He laughed nervously.  _ “You smell  _ really  _ good.” _

_ “Uhm.”  _ Johnny blinked a couple of times back then as he was doing now, looking at Daniel walk slowly towards their apartment in defeat.  _ “Thanks. You too.” _

_ “Thanks!” _ He had laughed.  _ “Though, what you're smelling is just suppressants, I never go out without them.” _

_ <<Not even good old suppressants will be able to get you from knowing!>> _ His mother had said.

Johnny took a deep breath now, walking quietly from the stairs towards Daniel. 

The echo of his steps gave him away anyway, the man looking back until their eyes met. He smiled, now waiting for Johnny to catch up with him even when he had the door already open.

“Bad night?” Johnny asked once he was close enough.”

“Yeah…” He admitted quite quickly. “Aside from not finding the guy, I was met with the fact that I won’t be dating in the next few months. Maybe never again.”

Johnny arched an eyebrow, hands inside the pockets of his red jacket. “How’s that?”

The omega got into the apartment, Johnny followed him and closed the door behind his back, waiting for an answer because—

“Well, I was flirting with this alpha.” He admitted, Johnny frowned as his jaw tensed. “And it was all going pretty good… until he offered me a drink and I declined.”

Johnny shrugged. “So what? Nothing wrong in doing it.”

“I know.” Daniel nodded, turning to look at him before deciding to walk into the hallway.

He followed him again, into that poorly lighted side of their home.

“But for some reason, when he asked, I made the mistake of telling him I’m pregnant.” He sighed, turning again to look at Johnny as they stood on each side of their room’s doors. “And suddenly, he had to go to the bathroom… and never came back.”

He chuckled, immediately feeling bad when the omega frowned. “No, no, it’s not… It’s just…” Johnny shrugged. “What a fucking cunt.” He said, and now the one chuckling was the omega. “For real, that’s…”

“Easy for you to say.” LaRusso added. “You’re a father already, if you met someone in my situation, you’re more likely to understand and… still go out with them.”

He was right.

Johnny nodded.

“It’s fine, I guess.” He cleared his throat. “I made my choice, I’m not gonna regret it for some bar dick.”

He laughed again, this time it made the omega smile.

“Look,” Johnny said, “it doesn’t seem like it right now, but you will find someone, man.”

“You think so?”

“Yeah.” He nodded. “I’m not really the best at advising or what the hell, but you’ll find somebody great.”

LaRusso laughed, nodding. They looked at each other for long seconds, then the man sighed.

“You know, I… For a while I thought you were kind of an asshole.” He confessed, Johnny moved his head to one side. “I don’t know, I think you weren’t so fond of me back then, but I felt like you didn’t like me at the beginning.”

That wasn’t true. Johnny arched both eyebrows slightly, smiling at him as the omega continued.

“I was kind of an asshole, yeah.” Johnny admitted, making LaRusso laugh. “I’m sorry, okay? It wasn’t my intention…”

“It’s fine.” He sighed. “You’ve been really… you’ve been really nice with all this.” He said, gesturing to his belly. “I didn’t expect it, but…”

Because alphas know by smell.

“Thank you, Johnny.”

And he had feelings for this omega.

He shrugged. “You don’t have to thank me…”

“Well, I do anyway.” He smiled, then sighed. “Good night, John.”

“Good night.” Johnny said, sighing as he saw the omega open the door of his room.

In a second, he stepped towards him, holding the door open before Daniel could close it. The man looked up at him with wide open eyes, curious and slightly shocked.

“I’ll do it!” Johnny said suddenly. “I’ll… I’ll help you with your pregnancy.” He swallowed, never getting his eyes away from the omega. “I’ll be your match.”

Daniel looked at him for long seconds, eyes bigger than ever, shining in the middle of the dark like the moon in the open sky. Johnny bit the inside of his cheek, waiting for something, some kind of reaction… maybe rejection at the end.

Something.

“Really?” He murmured, gentle and sweet.

“Anything.” Johnny nodded. Because alphas know by smell, he had feelings for this omega. “Anything for you, Daniel.”

Johnny was in love with this man.

This man that smiled wide at him, slowly stepping back as the door opened wider to let him in.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My health leave is over now, so it may slow down even more my updates. Going forward, I won't make any promises of when the next chapter will come. I can only tell you that I will.
> 
> So, what do you guys think of Johnny's POV?


	4. eleven months and counting

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Goals are met as Daniel comes to the end of his first trimester.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First off, I'm very sorry for the late update. I've been having really bad days and writing has been left second at the moment. But I cana assure you that I'm never abandoning this story and that I'm already mid-chapter five.
> 
> Now that we are on chapter four, I want to tell you guys something: chapter one and two were actually chapter one, but it would've been a 30k first chapter. The same happened with chapters three and four, they were chapter two alone; my idea was to let you know who Daniel and Johnny were in this story through their POVs and daily life shown in these chapters, so it was just going to be the intro to the story... but because I can't write short things, we got four chapters out of it.
> 
> Chapters five and on are their own! And hey, look at the new characters and tags!

Scenting Daniel’s room was different.

He had no way to explain it, but it was… different.

Johnny took a deep breath after he got the man out, excusing it at being weird if he stayed and watched it happen. The truth is—it was  _ embarrassing _ . Even more so, because this was  _ Daniel _ .

This was Daniel.

Swallowing, he looked around again and got going—

First the bed, which was what was used the most. 

The omega had left his sheets unfolded for him to scent, Johnny rubbed them over his neck, where his scenting glands were, and his wrist. 

He went for the pillows, the places close to the bed, avoided the closet but not the bathroom. 

Once he was done, Johnny looked around for the last time and his eyes landed on the monkey on the bedside table. 

Would it be a good idea to…? No, it was for the pup. If he did that, the pup may think him her alpha parent. 

Johnny wouldn’t do that to a little baby.

Shaking his head, he walked outside to find the man waiting with his back against Johnny’s door. 

Daniel smiled at him immediately. “Good?”

He blinked, then nodded. “Good.”

**You’re My Nomad And I Love You Sideways**

**Chapter IV**

**Eleven Months And Counting**

As advised by Ali, Johnny talked with Shannon directly with the truth. 

Or at least a half-truth where he let her know it was his roommate who he was going to be supporting this time around, leaving out the  _ feelsy _ part he was not truly interested in vocalizing anyway.

She had looked at him for long seconds, then nodded. Even thanked him for being honest.

Going with her to the interview had gone better.

When he mentioned to the boss about it, she had smiled at him and guessed it was the mother of his son. 

The woman was a nice and kind beta who was always interested in how everyone was doing, kept pictures of her grandkids in her office, and called his sons her kids in spite of being grown men like Johnny.

Alva had immediately gone to talk to Human Resources and the owner himself, getting Shannon an interview so fast, Johnny was actually hoping it meant this could go all kinds of well for them.

“God, I’m nervous…” Shannon murmured, Johnny looked up to find her grabbing at the folder she was holding with her resume and other information. “Why am I so nervous? I’ve been doing this for years!”

He chuckled, making her look up with a frown. 

Johnny closed his mouth and crossed his arms over his chest, clearing his throat to hide his amusement. But Shannon’s leg was bouncing and she was genuinely scared to step into that office, something that would happen any minute now, and Johnny sighed.

“You’re gonna do great, kitten.” He said, she slowly looked back at him. “Everyone loved you with Aunt Diana’s, everyone is gonna love you here.”

She kept looking at him, a small frown and a smile that didn’t quite want to show.

He frowned. “What?”

“You called me kitten.” She murmured, Johnny’s eyes opened wide as his back felt cold. “You haven’t called me that in over a year…”

“Shit—”

"It's, uhm—"

"I'm sorry." He shook his head. "I'm really sorry…"

For long seconds, Shannon looked at him as if she was considering something. After a while she just smiled and looked away.

"It's cool."

If she was annoyed, putting more attention to it would only make things worse. So, Johnny sighed and went back to looking at the door, waiting for it to open and end this agony.

As if asked for, his phone vibrated, giving Johnny an excuse to distract himself from the awkwardness by looking at it, finding a text from his roommate.

**(10:14 AM)** _Look what I found!_

Johnny moved his head to one side, seeing as pictures started to appear on his phone—a baby room, in tones blue and white, decorated with stars and drawings of The Little Prince.

Smiling, he wrote back.

**(10:16 AM)** _Chill, man. We got time!_

The man kept sending him photos, not waiting to read his messages and Johnny shook his head, unable to hide the smile as he let it happen. 

He could tell Shannon was looking at him, so he slowly looked back and held her curious stare for as long as he could.

Until he looked away.

“You got someone.”

Jesus fuck—Christ Almighty.

“No.” He answered, looking at her again. “It’s my roommate. He wants to turn the studio into a kids’ room.”

Her eyebrows went up; Shannon nodded slowly, not believing him.

“For real.” He unblocked the phone again, scrolling up to show her. Shannon looked down at the screen. “The Little Prince themed. I told him I’ll get him some stuff and would help, but God he hasn’t shut up about it all week!”

Shannon said nothing as the screen went black again and she could see her reflection on it. Johnny swallowed, watching as she leaned back into her seat with closed eyes, yawning cutely before opening her eyes and licking her lips.

Looking up at him, she moved her head to one side. “Does he have big eyes and dark hair?”

His breathing hitched and, suddenly, she was laughing.

Johnny looked at her feeling cold, unsure of what to do in this situation and if that laugh meant goor or not. Whatever it was, they didn’t have time to dive into it since Shannon was called into the office.

“Wish me luck, Captain.” She murmured, taking her papers and fixing her clothes.

He smiled at her. “You don’t need that, you’re gonna do great!”

She nodded at him, Johnny gave her two thumbs up and she smiled, practically running into the office.

As the door closed, Johnny kept his eyes on her, remembering how they used to call each other Captain and Kitten, and once upon a time he believed, he truly believed—

They would be married by now, and his son would’ve his parents together, like he always wanted when he was a child.

* * *

“Look, if you can’t sleep and don’t want to take warm milk, just get into my room and take a pillow.” Johnny said.

“What?” Daniel looked at him with wide open eyes. “Oh! Oh, yes. Okay… okay.”

He bit the inside of his cheek, preventing himself from laughing and making the omega feel bad. But it was kind of funny, almost as if he had no idea of how things worked with their noses and all that crap.

As a kid, Johnny had been taught these things  _ everywhere _ .

School had a program to make alphas understand their scents could have bad consequences on other people when you’re a teenager, presenting for the first time. 

He could remember awkwardly sitting between the older boys with Tommy as both had presented sooner than any of the kids from their generation, looking at their gym teacher do his best explaining it.

He remembered accidentally triggering Ali’s first ever heat, the way Mr. Mills had told him to stay away from her and now, he couldn’t stop himself from insinuating they would be perfect for each other.

“For real,” Johnny said, taking his tie from the counter, “don’t even think of it, just take it. Alright?”

Daniel smiled at him. “Okay…”

The man was looking at Johnny's hands, his tie. He'd been doing that for a while now, looking at Johnny's tie as if he wanted to do something about it but never dared to.

"Problems with your tie again?" Daniel murmured.

Johnny blinked. "Yeah, just… gotta go, get it done."

"Okay."

He nodded, standing there for seconds that felt like minutes, only looking at the omega without saying a single word. He seemed… nervous somehow, Johnny couldn’t explain it. At the end, he smiled at him and Johnny nodded again, taking his things.

“Have a good flight!” Daniel said as he opened the door.

Instinctively, Johnny saluted him as he winked, closing the door after—wondering why in the name of  _ fuck _ had he done  _ that _ .

Johnny shook his head, licking his lips before slowly walking away, feeling stupid as he went.

“Wait, Johnny!” He heard. He turned to find Daniel jogging towards him in his blue robe and pajamas. “Uh, just—”

Without looking him in the eye, Daniel took his tie and moved the collar of his shirt up. 

With ace fingers, he quickly put the tie around him, worked it into a perfect knock while Johnny looked down at what was happening with a warm face.

Once he was done, Daniel fixed the collar again, smoothing the jacket before noticing it was open.

“It’s—"

The omega didn’t let him finish, he buttoned his jacket up and smoothed it again before smiling and finally looking up.

"Okay, now I can have a peaceful day."

Johnny frowned. "What?"

"I'm sorry, it's just—it drives me crazy to see the tie, I have a fixation for having all ties around me put together perfectly!"

He couldn't help but chuckle, nodding as the man crossed his arms over his chest.

"Sorry."

"No," Johnny swallowed as he looked down at it. "It's perfect. Thanks, LaRusso."

"I have a name, you know…"

Johnny smiled at him again, slowly turning around.

"Bye, LaRusso!"

The last thing he heard was a deep sigh, followed by a soft laugh that made his day.

* * *

As a young boy, he had changed interests faster than the night ended.

Johnny had been into magic and skating, drums and music, and bikes—and then, finally, karate.

He remembered the imposing sign of Cobra Kai as he’d been going around, the way the older boys would get in and be all together like a band or something, cooler than any other kids around. 

To him, it had looked like the most amazing place to exist.

But to be part, he needed a certificate of having taken the assignation test, something that would tell the sensei he was to become an alpha. 

It had been an alphas only place, male alphas only, and Johnny had wanted to be part so badly, he had begged his mother to get Sid to get him a test back when these were not only expensive but rare, not as exact as the ones given nowadays, and long.

Johnny had sat at the hospital with his mother, nervous to take the test and hopeful as Laura had been telling him she was sure he’d be an alpha. 

That powerful sense of smell, the long of his limbs, his scent, it all told her before the test that he’ll become one of them.

It was taking that test when he met Dutch.

The boy had been sitting with his own mother close to them, making both women talk about how long it was all taking, how both had been dragged into this by their kids wanting to join classes of some kind—Dutch of boxing, and him karate.

He found himself talking to the kid, about why their future classes were cooler than the other’s, and a month after, Johnny smiled at the sight of the boy entering Cobra Kai and taking down his opponent to win a place at the dojo.

Since the beginning, it was Johnny, Bobby and Dutch, and now, every time he flew to Oregon, Johnny spent his break with his friend. 

“Aw, man…” Dutch said after hearing of Ali’s reunion. “Next time you tell me, like, a month before so I can talk to Clara, and maybe we could all go and be with everyone!”

Johnny sighed, smiling apologetically. “To be fair, I didn’t even remember it was happening.”

“Not cool.” Dutch pointed at him, looking at Johnny over his sunglasses. “Celebrate it, that shit’s important. Ali’s right!”

“She’s always right…” 

Dutch laughed, shaking his head as he gave his coke a sip. His friend refused to drink if he was around, ever since his wife told him to take Johnny’s sobriety seriously. It was remarkable, the way Clara had such a good influence on him.

“Eat a triple for me.” His friend said. “You know… it’s funny, I remember thinking those were the best burgers in the entire world. And they are!” He nodded. “But I don’t think I remember how it tasted.”

He snorted, laughing as the man complained of it. Johnny shook his head and licked his lips before taking a sip of his own drink.

“So, the lady from your building—”

Johnny looked at him.

“The one you were helping with that weird thing Jen and Jimbo did, what was her name?”

“Carmen?” He frowned. “What about her?”

“Yeah.” Dutch smiled at him. “What happened with her? Did she have her pup already? How are you two?”

“We” Johnny arched an eyebrow, “are friends and yes, she had her pup. His name is Miguel. He’s gonna grow up into an alpha.”

“Nice!” He smiled at him. “And why are you guys just friends, uh?”

“Oh my God…” Johnny shook his head, looking away as Dutch laughed. 

“Come on!” His friend patted his knee. “When are you gonna stop lamenting about what happened with Shannon? You screwed it up and you’re trying to fix it as best you can. It’s time to move on!”

Johnny looked at nowhere in particular before drinking again, deep brown eyes in his head.

He looked at his friend, thinking of the newer things happening in his apartment, who had made his tie today and left his scent all over his jacket, making some of the girls ask about it. 

“I’m helping someone else.” Johnny commented, he could feel his friend looking at him. “My… my roommate, he recently got pregnant and—”

“Jesus.” Dutch chuckled. “Man, you’re a magnet for pregnant omegas!”

If he could, he would kick his friend’s ass right now and there. If he didn’t need to be presentable for work, Johnny would be already tackling Dutch, wrestling as if this was still High School and they had the same energy, all the time in the world.

He just frowned at him, making his friend smile even wider.

“Sooo, your roommate!” Dutch said. “That’s the pretty boy, right?”

“What?” His frown became deeper.

“Come on, you really thought the boys wouldn’t tell me?” He arched an eyebrow. “So, what? You like him or something?”

“You do understand that I don’t need to be attracted to them to help them?” Johnny asked, heart hammering in his chest. “He’s just my roommate.”

“Not answering the question, interesting.”

Johnny looked down, defeated.

Would it be too bad if he told David Dutch the truth? Bobby would have to forgive him for not being the first to know this time around. Johnny sighed, looking directly at his friend.

“Oh! It got serious…”

“Shut up, man.” Johnny grimaced. “Look… it doesn’t mean anything, but… Our scents are compatible.”

Dutch’s eyebrows went up, nodding slowly.

“I’ve known since we met.” He made a gesture with his hand, his shoulders feeling less heavy somehow. “And like—he doesn’t really like me and I acted like an idiot towards him at the beginning—”

“Of course you did.”

Johnny looked at him with a frown. “And anyway, I guess it’s probably not a good idea that I matched with him but... “ He sighed. “I couldn’t help it.”

“Man…” His friend looked at him with a serious expression. “It’s not yours, right? The pup?”

“What? No!” Johnny sighed with exasperation.

“Are you sure?”

“Well, I think I would remember us fucking...” He answered. “God, no… I just—I don’t know. I guess I like him.”

In the silence that followed, Johnny remembered talking to Miyagi that morning as he left the building. The man had smiled at him and wished him a good day after saying yes to going to the reunion Ali had planned.

For a second there, Johnny had thought of going upstairs again to find his roommate and invite him too. At the end, he had shook his head and gotten into his car, reminding himself they were not dating, they weren’t even friends.

Just a few days had gone by since that night when Johnny got them into this, and it already felt like a lifetime. A tortuous one, where he couldn’t really get what he wanted while still enjoying a part of it.

After a while, Dutch sighed.

“Crazy idea, man.” His friend started, making Johnny look at him again. “What if instead of being a moron, you actually go for it?”

Johnny rolled his eyes, looking away.

“You can roll your eyes all you want, big baby.” Dutch said. “It doesn't change anything. I don't see why not."

"He doesn't like me that way, I don't think he likes me in any way." He frowned. "He just asked me because it's convenient…"

Dutch shook his head slowly with a bemused expression. "Doesn't sound like that to me."

He swallowed hard, sighing after.

"He probably thinks little of me, thinks I'm an asshole."

"Well, don't we all?"

Johnny hit his friend's bicep with his fist, laughing with him.

* * *

There was a small part of him excited about the match.

Not even because he was into Daniel LaRusso, but because this was—this was new, all that part he missed with Shannon and Robby, it was now there and as it turns out, he could also keep fighting for his son.

On land, Shannon must be doing her mock-flight for the agency, likely was gonna get the job and they could talk to their respective managers and get a schedule that would allow him to have Robby with him—and with Daniel.

Somehow, the omega he lived with had grown to care for his son, and in a way it felt like Johnny wouldn’t be alone while learning to be around his pup, help him in everything he needed, take care of him and simply be a good father.

It was such the excitement—it made him feel like the biggest asshole to ever live.

He had abandoned his omega, changed his pup for a bottle of self pity. This second chance… Did he deserve it?

Daniel had no idea of who he was, what had he done. If he was to find out, would he still want the match?

The excitement was still there, but as the days went by, Johnny could feel the guilt settling in.

* * *

Sometimes Johnny would get home and immediately realize Daniel was around for the intensity of his smell in the apartment.

Like today, he got hit with the scent before he saw the wallet and keys on the bowl at the entrance, Daniel’s fancy shoes at the table’s side—yet, the man was nowhere to be seen, not even in his room.

He supposed he would be with Miyagi in his workshop… not here, sitting at Carmen and Rosa’s table, eating churrasco with the women while Miguel slept in his carrier in the middle of the table without caring of the noise around him. 

Johnny blinked a couple of times, watching the scene happen after Rosa had opened the door for him. His roommate noticed his presence, looking up with a mouth full of meat and cheese, trying not to smile at the same time he waved.

“You came just in time!” Carmen said to him, standing from the table. “It’s leftovers day, so come sit. We’ve half the fridge to eat.”

He snorted, slowly walking towards them as Rosa started to list what they had.

“¡Tenemos de todo!” She said, all he got was ‘everything’ at the end. “Churrasco, ceviche… hamburguesa—burger? Burger meat! Un poquito de mole, tres empanadas…”

Johnny sat down at Daniel’s side, looking at all the open tuppers while Rosa put a plate in front of him and went back to the kitchen to finish microwaving everything. From his left, someone put grilled meat and cheese on his plate.

He looked up, finding Daniel with a tortilla in his mouth. 

The omega looked up at him, his big eyes shining as if he had never had such a fest in his life. It made his stomach turn a little, Johnny smiled at him without thinking as he chewed on his tortilla and took the rest back to his plate.

“Sorry,” he said softly, covering his mouth with a hand, “It’s just so good. You have to have some!”

“I know.” He laughed. “Thanks, man.”

Daniel went back to his food as Carmen smiled at him, apparently both thinking the same time:  _ that’s fucking cute _ .

"What's the kid doing there?" He gestured at Miguel in the middle of the table.

"Well, I have to look after him but eat too. I realized he doesn't care at all about us making noise so…" Carmen shrugged. "Ceviche?"

"Yeah, sure." Johnny passed her his plate.

He watched her serve him the food while he looked at the pup sleeping over the table, the way he barely moved and simply enjoyed his nap.

To be that free of the world…

Carmen passed his plate back and Johnny started to eat after thanking her.

“How did  _ you _ end up here?” He asked to Daniel, taking another tupper Rosa had brought to let her sit and eat in peace. “Uh, what’s this one?”

“Mole!” Rosa answered. “Eat it, it’s what the enchiladas are made of.”

He smelled it a little. It had a spicy feeling to it, it made his stomach jump. Johnny put the tupper down on the table, near his plate for when he was done with what Daniel and Carmen had put on it. 

“And, uhm,” Carmen said, making Johnny look at her, “I went up looking for you but Daniel said you weren’t home yet, so I invited him to eat with us.”

Johnny looked at him, the omega smiled, then went back to eat like a starving man.

“Y tiene buen diente, ¡ese bebé va a estar regordete!” Rosa laughed, Johnny looked back at Carmen for a translation but Daniel spoke first.

“I hope so. All LaRussos babies have been chubby!” Daniel laughed. “This is really good, Mrs. Diaz.”

“Pft, Rosa is fine!” The older omega answered. “¿Y cómo estás? ¿Cómo te sientes?”

“Uhm.” Daniel seemed to think his answer, then licked his lips. “Pretty good, actually. I mean… I’m having trouble sleeping…” He looked down, playing with the grilled cheese. “But, uhm, Johnny helped me out and it’s going better.”

Rosa nodded. “El olor.”

The omega looked up at her and smiled, his cheeks were pink and Johnny was confused as hell.

Carmen smiled at him when Johnny looked back, searching for an explanation. Whatever it was, she wasn’t aware of it either, but apparently, Daniel understood spanish… which, well—it was good. Pretty cool, actually.

“You know spanish?” Johnny asked once he got the chance.

Daniel grabbed another tupper with the empanadas, taking one before looking back at Johnny.

“No, but I speak Italian.” He clarified. “It’s similar enough, I understand what she means.” 

Italian. He wondered what it sounded like on this man’s mouth.

Johnny smiled at him as Carmen asked more about it and Daniel let them know that his mother worked almost all day and so he stayed with relatives, mostly his grandmother, who only speak the language.

He had learned out of necessity, needing to communicate with the old lady in order to help around, not feel alone. And as he spoke, his childhood sounded exactly like that: alone. In spite of the great variety and quantity of cousins, Daniel seemed to always be alone in each story.

It made him think of his own childhood.

The small apartment he had lived in with his mother before she married rich, before she left all her dreams of becoming an actress and being independent forever.

Hunger does that to you.

As a kid, Johnny hadn’t understood why she would sacrifice it all to have the commodity of Sid’s money and protection, the big house and the cars. He could see it now, that it was never about that—he could understand it, as he remembered seeing his tired mother sitting in their poorly lighted kitchen, looking at bills.

He had told her that night he was hungry. 

They hadn’t eaten much, they never did unless Granny realized and made Laura take leftovers with her after dinner or lunch—his mother had looked at him, big green shining eyes, and he had though she was angry.

But she had been sad. Desperate. He’d been a nightmare to her right there, not because he had done something wrong, but because he was hungry and she didn’t have anything to give him.

Johnny looked at the food on the table today, the way he wanted to make sure Shannon’s fridge was always full. 

“—So, it was really hard because she was alone all the time.”

He looked at the man as he spoke, Daniel had a little sad smile but his voice sounded almost proud. As if what he was saying, while difficult at the time, had given him something else he held with pride now.

“But she was always hard working, and she taught me to never give up and know my value.” He sighed. “So even if we sometimes went to bed with an empty stomach, she always knew one day we’ll do better and it would be worth it.”

“Your mom sounds like an amazing woman.” Carmen smiled at him. “Well, looks like we all have that in common!” She said, looking at him. Johnny blinked. “Hardworking single omegas and betas in these families.” 

Johnny blinked, slowly looking at Daniel.

He knew hunger, too. The loneliness of an empty apartment while mom works double for the day. But unlike Johnny, Daniel could tell of that past and embrace it, and he—he wished he could’ve told his mother in life that it was okay.

That he understood why she did it, why she never left the horrible man that abused them.

Johnny swallowed, going back to his food as the omegas kept talking.

It all tasted delicious, it was what he was now used to from this house and the times he came in for comfort, to feel part of something, important to someone. 

Daniel laughed at his side, if anyone were to see them from outside, it would look like they were all together. Like a weird little family, with the kid sleeping in the middle of the table, lulled by the sound of their laughs and conversation.

He shook his head, reminding himself—Daniel wasn’t his, he wasn’t Daniel’s.

The match was only there to help, and after it, they were back to being roommates.

Both stayed until Miguel woke up and Daniel watched as Carmen tended to him, carefully following her movements as she fed him then changed him, all the while making Johnny move his head to one side and wonder how his life had become this.

What would his mother think?

Laura had wanted him to find a nice omega that smelled of flowers, gentle and kind, smart, that could keep up with him and make him stay in one place, make pups with him, form a family.

He had done things out of the order she wished them for, never settling but still having Robby and a strange family in his friends, these people, even Shannon in spite of everything—what would Laura think of all this? Of Carmen and Miguel? 

Daniel and his pup?

“You wanna watch a movie?” The omega asked as they rode the elevator together. “I was about to sit down and watch Scarface when Carmen came looking for you.”

Johnny arched an eyebrow. “Scarface?"

“Shut up.” Daniel chuckled. “It’s Al Pacino. It’s my Italian duty to watch one or two of his movies once a year.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah…” He sighed, as if he believed the joke. “Otherwise I’m fully American.”

Johnny laughed at that, the man looked up with a smile and—his cheeks were still pink. Was he unwell? He wondered if he should ask, but if Daniel needed something, he would tell him. That was the deal.

He cleared his throat before nodding. “Yeah, alright.”

Daniel didn’t say anything as they sat together on the same couch to watch his copy of the movie on the DVD machine. He didn’t say anything as he sat closer after putting the lights off, and Johnny decided not to comment on it either.

They sat in the dark,  _ The World Is Yours _ , and somehow, Daniel’s smell ended up all over him once he went to sleep.

* * *

He dreamt of his mother.

He saw her standing on the beach, waving at someone he couldn’t see.

Nothing else happened in the dream, just Laura with her long hair in the wind, waving at an unseen person as he apparently stood close by.

Johnny blinked before putting on his sunglasses.

“Everything alright, Cap?” Daryl asked.

He simply nodded. “Yeah, man… just thinking of the dream I had last night.”

“Something good?”

Every time he dreamt of his mother, it was like a premonition of something coming. 

He had dreamt of her before Shannon got pregnant, even told her about it and made her laugh. Johnny had dreamt of her the night before he went to AA for the first time, then again on his first month celebration, and once more before meeting Daniel.

The night before he realized his roommate was pregnant, he saw her in his dreams.

“Yeah.” Johnny said. “Something really good, actually.”

* * *

“Holy shit—”

His toothbrush fell into the sink, the toothpaste burning in his mouth as Johnny stared wide eyed at his own reflection in the bathroom’s mirror.

Slowly, he moved his head to look back at the closed door as if he could see beyond it, through it, and into his roommate’s bedroom, the only place such a smell could be coming from because—

Johnny blinked, trying to hear, to make sense of the scent he’d gotten because it was—it was—

“Fuck!” 

He coughed, turning the water on to finish cleaning his mouth, trying his best to ignore the way his stomach was tensing and his back was feeling cold.

Another wave of the smell came in, making him cough again, biting the inside of his cheek as his body felt hot, goosebumps filling his skin—Johnny put a hand over his now washed mouth, frowning.

No one’s arousal could smell this strong unless they were in the same area.

This was an omega’s arousal.

Johnny swallowed.

“Shit, shit, shit…” He ran into his room, changing from his pajamas to whatever he got first—he needed to get out of this place immediately. “Shit, fuck—fucking fuck—”

When he finally opened the door, the smell was stronger and Johnny’s jaw clenched—he swallowed, looking away from his roommate’s door as he tried to make sense of what was happening.

Daniel was incredibly careful with his suppressants, everything. It felt impossible that this would be happening—unless something was wrong? Johnny looked at the omega’s door, wondering if he should check on him before leaving.

He walked swoly towards it, practically lured by the sweet smell of arousal coming from it, and then—

“Ohmm…” He heard. "Fuck—"

A whimper. A small moan.

Johnny blinked a couple of times, trying to make sense—Daniel was there with his arousal, his desire and want, and he was alone—the omega was alone, the omega he was taking care of needed—

Nothing from him.

He shook his head, biting his tongue hard as he walked away as fast as he could, even with the semi he was sporting now—he needed to get out of there.

The scent and the sound followed him to the entrance and once he closed the door behind him, Johnny closed his eyes and sighed deeply, looking up as if asking  _ why? _ Why now in the middle of all this?

Holy shit.

Johnny shook his head, practically running towards the elevator.

* * *

He couldn’t stop thinking about it.

Today, Shannon was to get the call from the agency to know if she was in or not. 

She had told him she’d call once she knew the answer, and Johnny had the feeling him dreaming of Laura was about this—his mom had tried to tell him that it was happening, and he could now go to the beach with his son sometime soon.

But even with all this—Johnny couldn’t stop thinking about it.

“If you don’t tell me what’s going on…”

“Okay, okay…” Johnny cleared his throat, looking at Ali who stopped eating her ice cream to put her attention on him only. “You can’t judge me, though.”

She arched an eyebrow. “Why wouldn’t I judge you?”

“Because you told me about your Nicolas Cage wet dreams and I never made fun of you.”

Ali sighed, shaking her head. “Yeah, well, sometimes you just need a little caveman…”

“I don’t wanna know that.” He sighed again. “Look…”

“What’s wrong?”

Johnny swallowed. “So, my roommate passed his first trimester.”

“Aha?”

“And, you know… he’s starting to show.” He said, remembering the funny way Daniel’s small, not really notorious at all, bump showed on his clothes only when he stretched his arms to grab something in the kitchen. “Everything’s good and all that…”

“But?”

“Well.” Johnny swallowed again, looking anywhere but at her. “He—I think—I think he’s going through the micro heat thing.”

Her eyes opened wide after looking at him with a frown. They stared at each other for long seconds until her mouth started to curve and Johnny gave her a look, but it was too late—Ali was laughing, with red cheeks and shining eyes, looking at him as if wanting to apologize but being unable to stop.

Johnny shook his head, looking away.

“Oh my God, I’m so sorry!” She said. “I’m sorry! I’m not—I’m not laughing at you! Or at him!”

“Yeah, yea, save it—”

“No! It’s just—” She shook her head, still laughing. “It’s just that—Oh my God. I remember when it happened to Shannon, you do? You were—”

They stayed silent then, people around them passing as others just kept to their ice cream. 

Under the sun, they both looked clean. Nobody would suspect his mess of a life, what she was going through right now, the situation with her father.

Ali looked up at him and smiled.

"What did you do?"

Johnny shrugged, thankful for the subject change.

He crossed his arms over his chest. "I left the apartment. Drove around for almost an hour then had some girly tea with Miyagi."

"What made it girly tea?" She asked.

"It was on like… a bag with flowers and stuff?"

"Oh yeah, of course. Does it have to have a monster truck in the bag to be manly tea?"

Johnny blinked, slowly realizing what Ali was saying—he sighed, looking away.

"Sorry."

"Mhm." She sighed. "So, back to Daniel—"

"Well," he licked his lips, "I guess he knows what is happening, so I don't have to talk about it with him or something but—"

"But?"

Johnny sighed with despair, holding his head in both hands with his elbows on the table. Whatever Ali may be thinking of him, it must be terrible if she wasn't laughing. 

He swallowed and looked up. "I can't stop thinking about it."

She nodded. 

"I… what should I do?"

He could tell she was thinking about it, licking her front teeth with her mouth closed as she did so. Slowly, the omega looked back at him.

"I think leaving will do." She said. "Unless, helping him out it's not off the table—"

"Holy shit, no!" He answered. "Ali!"

She shrugged. "What? Some people do it, alright. I don't know the limits of your… partnership, so it could be."

"Jesus." He looked down, shaking his head. 

Thinking about it.

"No." Johnny repeated. He looked up at her. "No, not at all. That's not happening."

Ali nodded. "Okay, then keep doing what you did last time! It's not gonna last long anyway…"

That was true.

Johnny remembered Shannon's lasted a few days. Granted, they had been together when it happened and he had helped since day one… whatever long it may take for his roommate, it couldn't be much.

Right?

His phone rang as if provoked by his thoughts. 

Johnny looked down at it and opened his eyes wide when he saw Shannon's name and picture there. He took it and answered the call, gesturing Ali to get closer with a hand.

"Hey!"

"I got it!" She said in a high pitched tone, making him smile immediately. "I got in!"

"You did! I told you you would!" Johnny said as Ali cheered at his side. "Shannon, yes! Congratulations!"

"Shannon?" Ali moved his hand with the phone to be heard. "Hey, it’s Ali! I hea—”

“I GOT IN!” She yelled again, each time seemed like she was trying to convince herself it was a fact.

Ali laughed. “Congrats, sweetheart!”

She took his phone from his hand, clicking on a few things and suddenly, Shannon’s voice was heard louder. 

“Speaker mode.” Ali said as an explanation, then looked at the phone. “Shannon, you’re on speaker!”

“Oh, okay!” She said. Her voice sounded normal the next time she spoke. “/I'm starting almost right away. Penelope, my direct boss, said we can talk about scheduling our flights as soon as we want."

"Nice!" Johnny said. "Okay, we can check that out once you're settled, yeah?"

"Yes, that'd be good." She answered. They were silent for a few seconds, then Shannon was giggling like a little girl. "I can't believe I got it!"

Johnny smiled at that, listening to Ali and Shannon talk over the phone, making plans for celebration and more.

It was happening, he could finally go back to a normal schedule and lay down more often, stop exhausting himself each week.

He could see Robby more, even spend entire days with him more often.

The room, they needed to work on the room soon.

"Things are looking up!" Ali sang as she pushed him slightly with her hips once they were walking towards his car in the mall's parking lot. "And we have our little party this week!"

Johnny sighed. "I still think it's bullshit."

"No, it's not! And you better prepare for next month!" She reminded him. "A year sober, Johnny!"

Her words echoed in his head as they made it. He walked slower, Ali walking away until she realized he had stayed behind. 

Johnny could feel her eyes on him, just as he did back then when she and Bobby went looking for him after a weekend of shots and puke, after he had lost his mother and used that as an excuse to leave his pregnant omega and not meet his pup.

If Ali hadn't been there, if she hadn't personally driven him to rehab and each AA reunion after… he wouldn't be here today.

For all he knew, he may as well have gotten into an early grave by now.

"Come on, hot stuff." She called him, standing right in front of him. "None of that brooding today. Let's go!"

She took his hand like he was a little boy that needed guidance and direction, and Johnny walked with her without another word until they made it to the car, and he had to let go and drive.

It was calm to drive back, talking about the upcoming reunion and who they were seeing, how long it'd been.

Johnny parked in front of her mother's house, wondering if Mrs. Mills had let Mr. Mills came back already, since Ali hadn't mentioned it yet.

He hugged her as they said goodbye, grateful to have her in his life, and then went home where the smell of his omega roommate rounded him like a strange hug.

Shaking his head, Johnny came in and walked into the hallway, ready to isolate himself in his room when the smell of arousal hitted him again.

"Shit…" He murmured, slowly turning back to the front door when Daniel's door opened.

He stood there frozen, between turning to the exit and his room, feeling the man's eyes on him.

"Hey, you're home!" Daniel said.

Johnny turned around to look at him slowly.

He looked fresh out of the shower, messy hair looking damp as it stuck to his forehead and neck. The omega smiled at him, stepping into his personal space.

"Wanna watch something?"

Johnny arched an eyebrow. "You want to turn me into an Italian don't you?"

Daniel laughed at that as he did all his bad jokes, rolling his eyes before grabbing his open hoodie for no reason.

His eyes fixated on that. 

"We can watch Rocky." He said, Johnny looked up and wondered how did he know? Had he told him he loved those movies or was he just so easy? "I'll make popcorn!"

"Okay…"

"Come on!" The man pulled him from his hoodie, making him follow Daniel wherever he wanted. "If we get it going, we can watch Rocky II as well, and next time III and IV!" 

Johnny followed him to the living room where he sat down and put attention to what the man was saying as he showed Johnny how to use Hulu even when he knew he wouldn’t know the next day anyway.

He watched the man stand to the kitchen to get the popcorn, then sit back on the couch at his side, suddenly closer than that first day.

“I love this movie." Daniel said, offering the popcorn. "I grew up watching them, I wonder if my baby will like them…"

"Pup." Johnny couldn't help but correct. Daniel looked at him. "The kids of alphas are called pups."

Daniel smiled at him, there was some sort of amusement in him. The omega looked at the screen and got the movie going before looking back at Johnny.

“My daughter only has me. What do you call the kid of an omega?”

Johnny opened his mouth to answer, but there was none. Kids were called for their sperm donor, and suddenly he had Ali’s voice in his head telling him how it was all wrong and even the smallest of gestures helped change the world.

He always made fun of that, ever since they dated in High School.

Today he looked down, shaking his head. “Sorry.”

"What would you call her?"

Johnny looked up at him as the music of the movie filled the room. He was so incredibly close, his scent had melded with Johnny's. One step closer, and their knees would be touching.

"I don't know." He answered. "What are you gonna name her?"

The man looked at the TV, relaxing at this side as he let his back rest on the couch. 

"I still don't know, though I've been thinking a lot about it." He said, then looked at Johnny. "You said you always wanted a daughter,” he smiled, “did you ever think of a name?”

He swallowed, looking away and into the screen to pretend he was actually putting attention. Johnny sighed, thinking of his answer.

“Yeah.” He said. “My mom… her name was Laura.”

“Laura?”

“No, I…” He chuckled, looking at Daniel. “She said she didn’t want me to repeat any names again.” Johnny shrugged. “So.. Laurel. If I ever had a daughter--her name was going to be Laurel.”

“Laurel.” Daniel repeated, looking back at the screen after leaving the popcorn on the couch. “Laurel…”

The omega sighed, putting a hand on his belly.

None said another word, but Johnny took the popcorn from Daniel’s side, his arm touching his stomach slightly as it happened. He had stretched to take it, gotten closer to his roommate, and Johnny didn’t move away after.

They stayed like that, with their knees touching, watching one of their favorite movies.

* * *

The meeting had gone faster than usual after Johnny stood up and got his eleven months medal, then gave a small speech about what it meant to have it.

He wasn’t so sure if he actually meant every word, if it was even okay what he had ended up saying… but he took the medal, held it in his hands for the rest of the meeting and felt its meaning with every passing minute.

Maybe Ali was right, this was a big deal.

Johnny admired it for a couple of seconds after the reunion ended, wondering what it said about him that he actually felt  _ happy  _ to have it.

As a kid, he had liked to collect things.

Nowadays, he tried to have all things he loved, pictures and movies, CDs and concerts, in physical form rather than whatever internet thing there was available.

This little medal felt like one of those things, a physical representation of something he loved.

"Time to go, son." He heard as someone put a hand on his shoulder. "Let's not make that fierce birdie wait."

Mr. Mills smiled at him, making Johnny remember all things Ali had told him about the man and how it disfigured the image he had of him since he was a child. But he only nodded, wondering what kind of image his kid may have of him in the future, if he could restore and save it now, or was it lost forever.

He put the medal safely in his pocket, sighing as everyone else stood and said their goodbyes for the afternoon. He had a few people come to him, palm his shoulder,  _ congratulations  _ and  _ that’s huge! _ between little smiles of people who want to do better.

Was he? Was he doing better?

A year ago today, he was drunk.

Johnny was likely lost somewhere between a dive bar and Shannon’s place, still unsure of wanting to be part of his own son’s life. 

In his mind, he was right: Robby was better off without him, as proven by the fact he had run away the day he was born.

“Hey!” He saw Ali waving at them in front of her car, Shannon and Robby with her.

Johnny stopped there, looking at them and unable to move.

“Fuck…” He murmured.

“Don’t be coward.” Miyagi pushed him gently to the front. “It’s celebration time.”

He looked down at the man at his side, blinking as he bit the inside of his cheek. 

“Dada!” Robby said with excitement, making Johnny look up to find him with his arm open in the air, clearly wanting to go where Johnny stood. “Dada!”

Johnny swallowed, walking again as he slowly smiled at his son.

The kid practically jumped into his arms, Ali launching herself to him to hug him at the same time Robby was putting his little hands on his face. They were cold, but the feeling of them was like an awakening, it felt like home somehow.

Robby closed his fist over his cheek, making him laugh. The sound made the boy look startled, then immediately laughed with him, gently palming his cheek with one hand, and absolutely nothing else mattered after.

They met Jimmy and Jeny, Susan and her wife Mitsy, and Tommy with his girlfriend Jane at the diner, laughed as Mr. Mills complained of them still getting together to eat junk food, and loudly greeted Bobby when he and his husband Diego made it. 

All sat there, burgers and hot-dogs, coke and diet coke, and talked of the friends that weren’t there and the kids they had and those that may come one day.

For a moment, he noticed everyone's laugh became one. Ali's hair falling over her shoulders, the way she had her arm hooked to Shannon's with their hands on the table, their heads leaning on each’s other as everyone congratulated Shan for getting the job.

He had Robby sitting on his leg, Miyagi distracting him at his right while Ali and Shannon listened to Susan and Martha, her wife, to his left.

Across the table, Jimmy and Diego talked about the later's car while Jeny and Jane shared something about kindergartens, Bobby listening patiently to Mr. Mills closer to him and Miyagi.

It was once the five of them on this table at first, the girls on the table across, all making faces and giggling between them, waiting for someone to make the first move before he and Ali went official, getting both groups together.

And now, so many years later, here they were still.

"How did it go?" He heard Tommy ask from the other side of the table. “You got it, but how did it go?”

Following his eyes, he found Shannon swallowing the sip had taken of her coke. 

"I don't know!" She sounded surprised herself. "I thought it had gone bad, they took their damn time to call, and then FINALLY. Oh my God, I spent all day yelling after!"

"They were always gonna get you!" Johnny interrupted. "I told you everyone was gonna love you! Didn’t I?"

Shannon frowned, looking nervous about the whole thing, almost if she couldn’t believe she deserved it. Her cheeks were red, and she laughed at the end, looking back at Tommy.

"Either way! I’m having my first fly this Saturday morning and I can’t wait!”

The reminder made Johnny smile, looking down at the kid in his lap. Robby looked back, laughing at him as he tried to reach his face. Johnny leaned down to let him touch him, the kid’s little chubby fingers feeling warm this time.

He’ll have his son for an entire weekend for the first time as Shannon worked and he has asked for the weekend off. Come Monday, they would talk to management and get that schedule worked out, finally able to share custody of their son as they wanted.

“Dada!” Robby called him.

“Hey.” He answered to his son, and the kid laughed.

Johnny smiled at him, seeing the worth of those eleven months between his arms.

* * *

“LaRusso asked me to get some… useless things, so we’re gonna stop at the store first.” Johnny told Miyagi as they boarded the car.

He sighed, thinking of his roommate’s texts early that afternoon: milk was alright, but cheetos and strawberry ice cream were just… Johnny shook his head, putting on the seat belt as Miyagi laughed at his side.

“What useless things Daniel-san wants?”

Johnny looked at him, sighing as he got the car going.

“He wants ice cream and cheetos!” He said, the man laughed louder. “I guess we’re getting to that part of the pregnancy now.”

“Oh, he is just using it as an excuse to eat junk.” The old man said, making Johnny smile. “Bet he eats popcorn. He eats popcorn, Johnny-san?”

“Man…” 

He laughed with him this time, still taken aback with how much the man knew his roommate—he forgot, sometimes, that they knew each other for years and years before Johnny met both of them.

Once, he had heard Daniel refer to the man as the closest thing he had to a father. He could see it every day—the concern in the beta's face when Daniel wouldn't sleep, the interest in his pregnancy, the way they talked to each other.

"Daniel-san will be best father." Miyagi nodded to himself. "Not sure of pregnant partner."

He blinked, trying to make sense of his words

"What do you mean?"

They stopped at a red light, just a few inches from the store. The afternoon looked purple and pink in the sky, orange beyond clouds. 

Miyagi looked at him.

"Daniel-san… Daniel-san is like Miyagi's son, Johnny-san." He said, Johnny nodded after a few seconds, realizing the man wanted some sort of acknowledgement. "Very important to Miyagi."

He blinked. "Yeah, I know…"

Miyagi nodded. "Good." He looked in front again as Johnny drove once the light changed. "Then Johnny-san knows not to hurt."

Oh, it was that kind of conversation.

Johnny bit the inside of his cheek, trying his best not to laugh or grimace.

Should he tell the man they were just roommates and the match didn't mean shit beyond the help they needed? Johnny blinked, not sure why he decided to simply nod.

"I know." He answered, searching for a spot to park. "I won't." 

Miyagi only nodded, signaling him a good spot near the entrance.

He thought of his words as he got Daniel's things and paid from them, as they talked of other things and planned to start working on the kids' room the next day.

Between painting shades and things that needed to be moved to make space for cribs and beds, Johnny thought of what the old man had pretty much told him.

Was he aware of how he felt for Daniel? Was this his way to let him know it was fine… or to tell him to not try shit after the pregnancy was over?

Johnny swallowed, taking the stairs as he let the old man get to his workshop. 

"Hey!" 

The omega was in the kitchen when Johnny got in, on a soft looking hoodie and shorts that made him smile.

Daniel rolled his eyes at him. "Don't you dare say anything about my legs!"

He chuckled, stepping deeper into the apartment to get to the kitchen.

"Got your ice cream!" 

"And the cheetos?" The man turned to look at him, he was finishing making popcorn. 

"Yeah, and the cheetos."

Daniel smiled at him, taking the things from his hands. He left the cheetos in the kitchen cupboard, taking the ice cream with him with two spoons. He smiled, following him after Daniel passed him towards the living room.

“What are we watching today?”

“Oh, I was waiting for you to come and watch Rocky III.” He said, the movie was already selected on the Hulu thing. “Is that okay?”

“Mhm.”

They sat down close again, but not as close as last time. 

Daniel eat the ice cream as Johnny devoured the popcorn, actually engrossed in the movie as if he was watching it for the first time--this and IV were his favorites, he couldn’t help it. The only time he looked away was when he felt the man move closer, offering him ice cream.

He took just a few spoons, not really a fan of strawberry flavor but amused at the happy noises Daniel kept making every time he ate it. 

Sighing, Johnny looked at the small space between them--he passed his arm behind Daniel over the couch. He cleared his throat, making Daniel lookup.

“I can just…” He swallowed, looking at the omega. “I can just cuddle you if you want, you know?” He murmured, Daniel blinked a couple of times. “I don’t mind.”

The man looked at him for a few seconds, then smiled before nodding. 

He passed his arm behind Daniel’s back, got him closer until he had him against his chest. 

The omega sighed, seemed to like the new position as he got an arm over Johnny’s stomach. He left his on Daniel’s waist and willed his heart to stop hammering inside his chest, afraid he may heard it as he laid his head on his chest.

But Daniel said nothing, simply sighed happily as Johnny got comfortable again, slowly relaxing.

The ice cream melted on the coffee table, the rest of the popcorn got cold as the movie went on and they watched part IV, deep into the night. 

He held Daniel there, until the credits rolled and nobody was moving.

“Uh, it’s late.” Daniel commented looking at his clock. “Aw man, I have to work early tomorrow.”

“Yeah, why?”

“Ugh.” He didn’t move, only looked up with his chin on Johnny’s chest. “The boss has some people coming over and he wants us all pretending to be efficient at our jobs.”

Johnny laughed at that, hand slowly going up from Daniel’s waist to his side. He almost wanted to see what his fingers looked like on his body—but he didn’t move, just kept this little moment here between them and the black screen.

“You want the pillow?”

Daniel nodded.

While they went apart, he heard him softly moan.

Johnny bit his tongue inside his mouth, his dick twitching in his pants as he stood up, shaking his head. They walked together once Daniel got everything off, the ice cream back into the freezer, the kitchen’s light off.

The omega waited for him outside his room, Johnny passed him the pillow and smiled at him as he saw Daniel hug him to his chest.

In front of each other, they stayed quiet, just looking.

“Thank you.” Daniel murmured, Johnny wasn’t sure for what. “Have a good night.”

“Good night, LaRusso.”

There was something about the way Daniel was smiling at him. He couldn’t quite name it.

“Thanks for bringing me ice cream.”

“And the cheetos.” Johnny reminded him, the man laughed. “Don’t forget those.”

“Yeah, and the cheetos.” He sighed. “We’ll get to those tomorrow.”

“Alright…” Johnny swallowed. “Robby—Robby’s staying tomorrow.”

His eyes went big, shining with glee. “Really?”

“Yeah, Shannon is coming back to work on Saturday morning.” He said. “So… Robby will stay the weekend.”

“That’s great.”

He nodded, smiling at the man. Daniel smiled back, holding the pillow closer.

“Well, I’ll see you tomorrow with Robby.” He said. “Good night, John.”

Daniel turned without waiting for him to talk again, opening the door of his room.

“Good night…” He said back, Daniel waved from inside his room and closed the door. “Daniel.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Taking this chance to thank you not only for the love and support shown to this fic, but also for the multiple nominations I got in the fanfic awards. I didn't expect any, let alone this many. I'm happy you guys enjoy my writing and I hope to keep writing for you for a long time. Thank you!

**Author's Note:**

> You can find me for sure on [my Twitter](https://twitter.com/lawrussorights), but also sometimes on [Tumblr](http://lawrussorights.tumblr.com/)!


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